A New World
by Blizzard Wolf Claw
Summary: After a seemingly normal night, I get visited in a dream by a guy who's pretty much a God and forces me into the world of shinobi. Now tasked with "saving the ninja world," whatever the heck that means, how will I adapt with being thrown into Naruto? SI, OC X ? Warning: I will get my butt whooped.
1. What the Heck Just Happened?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it

AN: Hey all you Naruto fans! This is a new story that I've been dreaming up in an attempt to procrastinate on my homework (I'm not joking….) and hopefully, it will be a nice read for the folk that come here. With that notice, I jump into the Naruto world with this piece of writing as I ask that you all enjoy!

"Ugh...I'm stuck with all this mess…" I complained as I sat in my room contemplating an excuse for not doing my homework. I had good grades in school, but that didn't mean I loved doing homework.

Closing my binder, I shoved it back in my bookbag before laying back on my bed and staring outside the window. Seeing a faint light, I got up and opened the blinds to see that a full moon illuminated the nighttime darkness with its gentle, ivory light. Staring at it in wonder, I can't help but be drawn to its beauty. Sighing, I reluctantly tear my eyes away from it and turn of the lamp next to my nightstand. Laying my head on a soft pillow, I drifted to sleep after continually returning my eyes to the window, wondering what kind of world lie beyond the Georgia mountains.

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Opening my eyes, I look around to see that I'm surrounded by darkness. I immediately wrote it off as a dream, as I had those regularly, however this one didn't seem like any of the others I've ha-

" _You have been chosen, young one,"_ a creepy disembodied voice said, speaking from seemingly every direction. Instantly on edge, I tensed up while looking around in every direction and perking my ears for any sounds.

"Who...are you?" I said cautiously, only to be rewarded with a bright light being shoved in my face. Startled, I covered my eyes immediately for a few seconds before I could register anything with my eyes again. Looking straight ahead, I saw a weird looking gray-man with a white robe adorned with 6 little swirly thingies and a red dot on his head.

" _I am HagoromoOtsusuki, otherwise known as the Sage of Six Paths."_ Blinking, I struggled to remember where I heard that name before. I stood there with a thoughtful expression on my face when a lightbulb went off in my head.

"Hold on a second…" I muttered. "You're _The_ Sage of Six Paths!?" I yowled, remembering him as the guy in Naruto that invented Ninjutsu or some crap like that. I seemed to amuse him, because he gave a small chuckle at me, which did kind of irritate me. "What are you laughing at?" I challenged, before he stopped the chuckle and gave me a serious look that almost made me pee my pants. "Okay, I'll shut up," I immediately followed.

" _Thank you,"_ he said, making me tip my head forward in exasperation, even though I didn't say anything in response. _"I must ask you to save the ninja world from a coming evil,"_ he explained.

"What kind of evil? And how can I help at all?" I asked, blowing off questions.

" _I cannot answer that yet, however you will be critical in saving the ninja world from this evil,"_ he vaguely explained, making me sigh in frustration at the lack of transparency.

"So...What do you want me to do?"

" _I will transport you to the ninja world as a child, and you will grow up among the shinobi,"_ he explained. _"You will learn the way of the ninja and help with my children to bring peace to the land."_

"Hold on, hold on," I backtracked, having a hard time putting this in my head. "So you're telling me that because I'm needed in a fictional world that apparently exists, you're gonna drag me away from my home and make me go through life again as a ninja?" Hagoromo answered my long summarization with only a nod. Not sure what to do, I just stood there for what seemed like eternity before doing what felt like the only logical thing.

I fainted.

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AN: And that's the end of the first chapter! I hope you guys stay tuned and please don't tear me up with flames! It's my first naruto story for goodness sake! Remember to review, favorite, and follow, and I'll see y'all later!

Blizzard, out!


	2. The Opportunity of a Lifetime

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

AN: Hey y'all! Here's the next chapter of this off the wall story for ya! enjoy it!

Head throbbing, I started to awaken with a quick yawn. Looking around, I definitely found myself confused as all I saw was a misty forest that gave off an eerie vibe, to say the least. "Well, that was...an interesting event," I said, surprising myself at how my voice somehow felt bubblier. "Welp, might as well look around," I decided, and went down a random path in the mist-ridden forest.

"This place looks like something out of a horror movie," I muttered, before getting a chill down my spine. Feeling uncomfortable, I quickened my pace and occasionally looked over my shoulder in case someone followed me. A few minutes later, I came across a river. Curious, I slowly walked over and looked in the mirror. Startled by what I saw, I jumped back in fright. On alert, I slowly returned to the edge of the river bank and looked at my reflection across the river.

"Huh, I look pretty different," I noted. Apparently, although I retained my brown skin and brown eyes, my hair gained a slight tinge of blue. Shockingly, I also transformed into what seemed like a little kid. "I look like I'm five freaking years old." Giving a loud grunt, I pondered my next move until my stomach started to growl. "Welp, I guess I should look for some food," I thought aloud, opting to follow the river downstream in search for fish.

Luckily, the river soon bled into a tributary alive with many fish and other things. "Oh, thank goodness," I said, relieved. Going over to the river, I wondered how I would get the fish outside of the river.

"Hmmm…." I wondered, not knowing any way to fish as I never learned that on earth. Suddenly, an idea got into my head. Getting down on my knees, I put my hands into the shape of a hook, much like a praying mantis, and practiced swiping in the air a few times as fast as I could. Feeling that I'd be able to pull it off, I got as close as possible to the water without scaring the fish. Stalling my breathing, I picked my target and struck.

Water splashed all around me, but I never lost sight of the fish and managed to scoop it out of the water. Quickly jumping to my feet, I caught it before it could flop back into the water.

"Okay, I caught a fish!" I celebrated, before realizing that I had more problems. "So...How am I gonna kill it? Or skin it or eat it, really?" I sighed. "I did not think this through at all…"

Oh wait, that's what I could do! Sitting down with my legs crossed, I stabilized my breathing and started to focus, thinking about the process of finding one's chakra. With my eyes closed, I meditated for what seemed like forever, looking for a warm glow of energy inside of me. Strangely, it was easier than I thought, almost like chakra flowed off me. Reaching for the warm core of energy, I found myself surprised when a burst of energy flowed out of me. Surprised, I opened my eyes to see a blue light surround me, although it disappeared rather quickly.

"Oh my gosh...I can use chakra…" I said, utterly flabbergasted about my discovery. "I guess the Sage was right when he said I'd learn the way of the shinobi…" Wait, there was a point to this chakra thing….

Oh right, I had a fish to cook. "Now what was that fire heating jutsu?" I wondered, grabbing the now dead fish and trying as hard as possible to set it on fire. Unfortunately, it seemed like using the chakra was impossible. "Ugh, drawbacks of being 5 years old, I guess. You can have chakra, but can't use it for jack," I scoffed, before a voice came out of the misty forest.

"Who's there?" a masculine voice said. Quietly gulping, I immediately began to look for a place to hide before seeing that hiding would be useless against a shinobi at this point.

"Hello?" I called back. "Is anyone there?" I asked. A few seconds later, a man would land right in front of me, both shocking me and throwing me in the river. Upon touching the cold water, I quickly leaped out of the river as fast as possible, and got a better look at whoever found me.

It was a man with one eye, wearing a green robe along with brown earrings and a little headband with 4 little squiggly lines on it. "Now what are you doing out here?" he asked, looking down at me.

"I don't know where I am," I answered honestly. There was no reason to lie. "Can you help me, sir?"

In response he gave a small grunt. "At least you have manners." He then picked me up and jumped really high, scaring the crap out of me and making me stick closer to him. "Scared, huh?"

"Kinda," I cheekily replied, giving the man another round of entertainment. "Where are we going?" I questioned, pretty sure of what village that headband belonged to.

"I'm taking you to Kirigakure no Sato," he answered, confirming my suspicions. I couldn't let the facade fade away; however, so I continued asking questions.

"Is that a ninja place?"

"Yes, it's one of the five major villages," the ninja explained, although I already knew that much despite not being the biggest Naruto intellectual in the world.

"Are you guys cool?" I asked, genuinely wondering what Kiri would be like.

"Is that what you kids do nowadays?" he started, giving me a dreaded feeling of an incoming rant. "Why back in my day, we didn't have to worry about things being 'cool.' We were trained to be ninjas, plain and simple. It was kill or be killed, and being serious and professional was a requirement to succeed among the ranks," he lectured, scoffing. "These new generations have no idea about being real shinobi. It's all about "cool jutsu" and being popular."

"...So is it cool?" I repeated, miffed that he ranted the whole time without answering my question.

"...Never mind," he said, shaking his head at my perceived childishness. The remainder of the trip was silent, with me looking at the many sights within the seemingly mystical misty forest.

"Are we there yet?" I asked after what seemed like at least thirty minutes, yawing and growing a little bit more sleepy.

"Actually, yes, we are," he answered straightforward for once. Gaining excitement, I started to squirm as the shinobi landed on top of a building and put me down for a second. "Welcome to Kiri."

Stunning was the only word I could use to describe the moment. Beyond the misty exterior, many buildings with grass covered all over the place gave the village a vibe of naturality, one that I hadn't experienced often, if at all, before now. "Wow…"

"Something, huh kid?" the ninja said. Taking in all the sights, all I could muster up was a nod. Releasing another small chuckle, the man scooped me back up and started ninja hopping again, this time into a really large building in the middle of the village. Standing at the entrance, I once again jumped off of the kiri nin and looked up at him wondering what to do. "Follow me," he soon instructed, and I complied instantly.

Inside the large tower, the first thing I noticed was a secretary and a very large set of stairs. Looking at the woman at the desk, she put away a paper before looking up, her gaze meeting mine. She then gave me a friendly smile before returning to her paperwork. Now feeling all giddy, I followed the shinobi in the green all the way up the stairs before we reached a floor with nothing on it except a door.

Going forward, the man knocked on the door before stepping back. "Come in," a voice sounded, this one a clear feminine voice. Looking back towards me, he jerked his head towards the door before opening it and entering. I followed him into the room for my eyes to be assaulted by a massive wall of blue.

All of the walls were blue, the chairs all had a blue tint to them and I loved it. Looking around, my eyes eventually settled on the woman sitting behind the desk. She was very pretty, and had auburn colored hair along with striking grass green eyes and a blue dress to match the room. "What do you need Ao?" the woman casually asked, putting a piece of paper down into what seemed like a never-ending pile of paper. "And who is this child?"

"That's my reason for coming, Mizukage-sama" the man, who I now know as Ao, answered. "I found him on the village outskirts during a routine patrol."

"Really now?" she said, raising an eyebrow before turning her attention towards me, complete with a sweet smile. "What's your name?" she asked in a semi-kiddy voice.

"M-My name?" I stuttered. I knew that I had a name, but it would be extremely weird in this place, so I stalled while thinking of a cool name for myself.

"Yes, your name. Do you remember it?" she pressed.

"Of course I remember!" I bursted out, much like the 5 year old I apparently transformed into. "My name is Kaiza, don't forget it!" I yowled enthusiastically, giving her a smile. She apparently found it cute, as she giggled for a second before getting out of her chair and walking towards me. After a second, she knelt down right in front of me.

"Where are your parents?" she asked. "Someone as young as you shouldn't be alone out there."

"I...don't know where they are," I said. The lady gained a sad look on her face, and turned to Ao.

"Where did you find him?" she questioned.

"I found him after going to the source of a burst of chakra. He was the only one at the scene," the kiri nin reported.

"Interesting…" she said. "Check his chakra coils. It's not everyday a 5 year-old can access his chakra." Wondering what she meant, I looked at Ao. He also looked at me, however a whole bunch of veins started bulging around his covered eye, which both surprised and slightly disgusted me. His visible eyes squinted at me for a second as his face scrunched up, though a few seconds later his eye widened and he made an audible gasp.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Giving a large sigh, Ao looked at her with a very serious look on her face.

"It's...just like _him_ ," Ao said, making Mizukage-sama's eyes go just as wide as his as her shocked gaze shifted to me.

"A-Are you sure?" she questioned, not believing whatever Ao told her.

"Absolutely."

"Umm...what am I not getting here?" I butted in, confused about this whole silent exchange thing.

"Nothing," the woman said. "Can you be a darling and step outside for us? It will only be a second," she requested. Not in any position to refuse, I simply shrugged and went over to the door, opening it and closing it behind me. I respected Ao and the Mizukage-sama lady, but as always, my streak of nosiness has never failed. Being as quiet as possible, I put my ear up against the door, hoping to eavesdrop on some pieces of the conversation. To my disappointment, I couldn't hear a single thing said inside the room.

With a light huff, I put my back onto the wall and waited for one of the two in there to open the door for me. Thankfully, Mizukage-sama soon granted my wish as the door opened to show her standing there with the friendly face that she started with at the beginning of our meeting. "You can come back in now," she offered, and I gladly accepted it, walking myself back into the room.

In the room, the feeling became a lot more tense than before, but it wasn't very malicious, I decided, so I didn't let it get to my head. Then, Mizukage-sama opened her mouth and let out a sigh before asking me a life-changing question.

"Kaiza, is it? I would like to ask you something." I nodded, giving her the gesture to go ahead with her question. "Would you...like to become my son?"

Completely caught off-guard, I looked to Ao for advice, but he had a blank look on his face that gave nothing away. Looking back to the auburn-haired woman, I wondered what my life would be like with her as my mother. She certainly seemed nice enough, so it couldn't hurt, and it might end up being the beginnings of a great family, something that I always wanted.

"Yes," I agreed. "I want to be your son."

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AN: And that's the end of that! Now of course, I am on that early writing spree that most authors have with early stories. Hopefully, I can give you guys an update for just about everyday this week for a few days. Anyways, favorite, follow, review, and I'll see y'all later!

Blizzard, out!


	3. A Family!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

AN: Hey y'all! Since I'm tryin' to pop out chapters like popcorn, here y'all go!

 _Last time on a New World…_

" _Kaiza, is it? I would like to ask you something." I nodded, giving her the gesture to go ahead with her question. "Would you...like to become my son?"_

 _Completely caught off-guard, I looked to Ao for advice, but he had a blank look on his face that gave nothing away. Looking back to the auburn-haired woman, I wondered what my life would be like with her as my mother. She certainly seemed nice enough, so it couldn't hurt, and it might end up being the beginnings of a great family, something that I always wanted._

" _Yes," I agreed. "I want to be your son."_

When I said "yes," Mizukage-sama's face lit up with happiness. With a rush of joy, she picked me up in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh, my own sochi!"

"Mizukage-sama...I can't...breathe!" I choked out, causing her to stop and look at me in wonder.

"My, are you alright?" she asked, oblivious that she almost caved me from the inside.

"Mizukage-sama, this is getting old," Ao scolded. "You obviously hugged the boy too tight. I swear, you need to be more respon-"

"Ao…" Mizukage-sama said in a sickly-sweet voice, which honestly scared the living hell out of me. "Shut up, or I'll _melt_ you," she threatened, sending Ao into a panic.

"Whhhat?" he yelled, obviously scared out of his wits. "What did I…"

"Enough of you," she cut off, clearly angry about something. "Go make yourself useful, I have paperwork to finish." I took note of how much hate she put in the word "paperwork." Sighing as he saw the fight was unwinnable, Ao left the room. I couldn't help but laugh at his misfortune, and then look at my new mom while she looked over paperwork. "Mizukage-sama, what should I do?" I asked, not wanting to just stand around doing nothing.

"You can sit in the chair right there, sweetie, I should be done soon," she replied gently. "Also, call me Kaa-chan. Mizukage-sama makes me feel...old."

"O-okay...Kaa-chan," I amended, stifling a laugh at how violent she gets against any implications of her being "old."

Sitting there, I asked my new Kaa-chan many questions about Kiri while she did paperwork, and honestly, I was stunned. While she hacked away at the giant pile of papers, she told me about the history of Kiri, the other great villages and even a civil war that just ended about a year ago.

"And you were the leader!?" I shouted incredulously, super excited that my new mom was an S-ranked shinobi that could kick butt and take names.

"Yes I was," she confirmed. "The movement was to fight against the genocide of Kekkai Genkai holders. It was a tough fight that lasted for years, but we managed to pull through. After the fact, I became Mizukage and here we are now," she finished.

"Wow...so you know ninja stuff?" I asked, surprising myself with how kiddy I sounded.

"Why yes, I know ninja stuff," Kaa-chan laughed. "And you will too, especially when you begin the Academy in a few weeks."

"The Academy?" I echoed, not really sure on what that meant.

"School for ninjas," kaa-chan explained. "You go there to learn about the ninja arts before you become a Kiri shinobi."

"Oh, cool!" I shouted, before going back through what she said. "In a few weeks? Can I start early?"

"Hmmm…." she thought, genuinely thinking about my question. "Maybe…" she muttered, before returning to paperwork. Hoping that kaa-chan would start teaching me, I sat as still as possible to prevent myself from bouncing all over the place.

"Okay, I'm done," she said after a few more minutes. Surprised, I looked on her desk to see that there were still about forty papers left on her desk.

"Um...kaa-chan? There's more paper right there," I mentioned, pointing to it.

"It'll just have to wait until tomorrow," she dismissed, grabbing my hand as we started toward the door. "Now, we have to get you some clothes." Satisfied with her answer, we went outside of the building and walked around the streets of Kiri. The scene was really amazing. People talked outside in the misty fog, the occasional shinobi included in the mix, and many gave out a wave to Kaa-chan as she walked by them while giving me a curious stare. Shyly, I leaned closer to Kaa-chan to avoid the stares, only for her to put her hand on my head.

"Don't worry, little Kaiza, they're all villagers," she eased. It helped a little bit, however I still felt unnerved by all of the strange looks. "Ah! Here we are," she said when we arrived to a rather modest looking building. Not expecting much, we walked inside to be completely blown away.

The place had clothes all over the place, as well as ninja materials and other items orderly placed around the store. "Woah," I said, amazed.

"A note for the future: Appearances can be deceiving," Kaa-chan said to me as a somewhat elderly woman walked over to us.

"Ah, hello, Mei-chan," she greeted. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, Miyuki-san," she replied.

"Who's the cute little kid?" Miyuki asked, patting my head. In response, I shrunk my head down a little bit to avoid her hand.

"Yes, that's my son, Kaiza Terumi," Kaa-chan answered proudly.

"You have a child?" the woman asked in shock. "But...he doesn't look like you too much."

"I adopted him unofficially, but I'll finish the paperwork tomorrow morning. I brought him here for a little clothes shopping."

"Oh, that explains it. Well, look around for whatever you like," the lady said, but by the time she finished, I already had something in my sight. Going over, I stopped at a dark blue shirt with a design of a dolphin swimming in the ocean. "I want this one!" I said, the two coming over to me.

"Your son has good taste, Mizukage-sama," Miyuki said as I gave Kaa-chan the shirt.

"Yes he does," she agreed while I looked across the store for other matching outfits.

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After I finished shopping, Kaa-chan paid the ryo and we went on our merrily way back to her house. "Kaa-chan," I called. "Where's your house?"

"It's down the street, and behind the tree with the green moss going all the way up it," she identified, pointing at the tree as we crossed the corner. "And here we are."

The house was pretty big and looked really nice. "Nice house," I complimented.

"Thank you, Kaiza-kun," she replied as she opened the door. Unlike her office back in the tower, the walls were brown. I immediately saw a living room conjoined with a kitchen as well as a second level staircase and a great brown carpet. "This is where you'll be living from now on."

"Wow…" I said as I started to explore the house. Stopping in the kitchen, I started to think about how amazing this was. Staring at a window, I felt my eyes start to water as the feeling of being in a real family overtook me.

"Kaiza?" Kaa-chan called, seeing that I was crying. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I replied, smiling as I gave her a big hug. "I love you," I whispered, feeling really emotional at the moment.

"I love you, too," she returned, before a loud growl came from my stomach, causing me to look really sheepish. "It looks like you would love some food too! I'll get some ready, okay?"

"Can I help you, Kaa-chan?" I asked.

"Sure!" she agreed, signaling me to come in and help cook. A few minutes later, I'm glad I did ask.

No offense to Kaa-chan, but she didn't know what she was doing too much. She forgot to put water in the rice pot, she almost put the chicken on fire, and she got tired of trying to cut said chicken that she pulled out a kunai and started hacking away at it. After a few minutes of me sweatdropping and trying my best not to burst out laughing, I took over a bit and help her with the seasoning so we could get the chicken in the oven.

"Wow, Kaiza-kun, you're a great cook!" my mom complimented. Maybe you can help me with dinner everyday."

Trust me, Kaa-chan. I will," I promised, making a double-layered statement that I honestly think she caught as her eye slightly twitched. Sitting at the table, I looked around while the chicken cooked in the oven. "Hey, Kaa-chan?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes?" she responded.

"So...Why were you and Ao so shocked earlier?"

"...We found out something very special about you, Kaiza-kun," she said.

"Really? What was it?" I pressed.

"I...I can't tell you right now," she dodged, lowering her eyes slightly. "When's your birthday?"

"September 23rd," I answered. "Why?"

"When you turn 8, I'll tell you," she promised.

"But...okay," I relented, realizing that it was probably something important. Just then, a fantastic smell reached my nose. "The chicken's done!" I announced, running over to the oven to take it out. Putting it on the counter, I looked over and turned the rice of as well as Kaa-chan got out a few plates. She put the food on both of our plates and carried to the kitchen where we both sat down in the same chairs as before. While I grabbed my fork, I noticed my mom say "Itadakimasu" before eating her own rice. Mimicking her, I said the phrase before picking up my chicken with my hand and biting a piece off.

Dinner continued with small conversation between me and Kaa-chan, mostly me asking her questions about Kiri and ninja training and stuff like that. Burping, I quickly covered my mouth as I finished the last bit of rice left on the plate. "Excuse me," I said.

"You're excused," kaa-chan returned. "Now, let's put these plates away and get you ready for bed." Listening to my mom, I put the plate in the sink to be cleaned later, and went up into the bathroom for a bath.

After cleaning myself from head to toe, I got in my pajamas, which consisted of a blue t-shirt with three sea turtles on it and light blue shorts. "Where do I sleep?" I asked Kaa-chan after getting dressed.

"Hmm…You can sleep in...this room," she answered, opening the door to reveal my new room.

It was rather simple. The room had a few drawers, a closet and a bed accompanied by a nightstand with a lamp on it. The sheets and covers were neatly arranged on the bed and the blue walls added a nice touch. "T-thank you," I said, preventing another emotional episode from occurring.

I really needed to stop crying…

"It's nothing," Kaa-chan replied sweetly. "Now, let me tuck you in."

"Okay." With that, I jumped in the bed and got under the covers while Kaa-chan snuggled me in. "Good night, Kaa-chan," I said after feeling really warm and snug underneath the covers.

"Good night, Kaiza-kun," she returned. "See you in the morning," she said before closing the door behind her quietly. Sighing, I looked up at the ceiling thinking about what my new life would bring me until a wave of drowsiness overtook me and sent me into the world of dreams.

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AN: That's another one down! I hope you enjoyed it, and as usual: favorite, follow, review, and I'll be seein' y'all later!

Blizzard, out!


	4. A Quick Checkup

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

AN: Have fun! (Yeah, that's it…)

 _The next day…_

Waking up from my sleep, I looked up to see the blue room that yesterday became mine. Wiping my eyes, I went to the windows to see that it was still dark outside, although the sun began to rise above the horizon. Staring outside the window, I started to think about the events that transpired yesterday.

It was like a fairy tale; I got dragged over here into an anime series, and now the Mizukage is my mom...I would've watched Naruto more if I knew this was going to happen.

'It might turn out to be a great life,' I thought, tipping my head over as I wondered what to do. 'But for now...I'll just bide my time,' I decided, before a growl escaped from my stomach. Sighing, I ignored it and looked back around my room, before getting an idea. Jumping on my bed, I sat in a meditation pose and tried once again to call upon my chakra. I found it way more easier this time, and when I opened my eyes I saw that once again, a deep blue veil of aura covered my body. Looking at my arms and legs, I saw the veil slowly leave me as I stopped trying to call the chakra.

"This...is pretty cool," I said out loud to myself, before the door to my room opened to reveal Kaa-chan, dressed in a blue nightgown .

"You're up already?" she asked me, to which I nodded.

"I always wake up early," I responded.

"Well, I guess it'll be better to get you ready now," she muttered to herself, before I nodded and went over to my clothes to chose something. Quickly, I decided on a shirt with a large turtle on it combined with some blue shorts with a green line down the side. "Now let's get you ready," the Mizukage said, taking me to the bathroom.

After I bathed, brushed my teeth and my hair, washed my face and subsequently got dressed while Kaa-chan did the same. When I finished with what would become my morning routine, I was surprised when I saw that she got ready much faster than I would think. "How'd you get ready so fast?" I asked, curious.

"I'm an adult, and a shinobi, Kaiza-kun," she responded. "It's important to be ready in a moment's notice." With that lesson in my head, we came down to the kitchen to have a small breakfast, which consisted of some eggs, bacon and sausage with a side of milk. When we finished, I wondered about what we would do, so I asked.

"Kaa-chan?" I called, getting her attention as we started to leave the house. "What am I going to do today?"

"Today, before the village wakes up, I'm going to have to get you registered in the Ninja Academy, and then I guess you'll help me out in the office." I nodded, content with that answer. Walking along the street in the early morning, we made our way through the village before we came to a large building with the Kiri symbol on it. "We're here," she responded, before we entered the building.

It was very large, and brown walls appeared everywhere. It looked like a regular school, including an office as well as two long hallways on the left and right with a slew of doors that led to classrooms. Going into the office, I walked behind Kaa-chan as she greeted the secretary.

"Good morning, Mitzu-san," she said, drawing the man's attention from his paperwork.

"Oh! Good morning, Mizukage-sama," he greeted warmly. "What brings you here?" She smiled before grabbing my hand and pulling me to her side.

"I need to register my son for the Academy," she answered, and I couldn't stop laughing when looking at the man's slack-jawed expression.

"How...What...Huh?" he spattered, not even sure where to begin.

"Ao found him yesterday during a patrol all alone. I decided to take him in, and make him a Terumi," she explained, humored by the conversation. Mitzu seemed to recover from his shock as he cleared his throat and pulled out a packet of papers.

"I'll need you to fill this paper out, and then he'll be set once he stops by the hospital for testing," he described, slightly creeping me out.

"Testing?" I echoed, causing the two to share a snort of laughter.

"Nothing too bad, Kaiza-kun," Kaa-chan eased. "Just a blood test, height, weight, allergies, chakra pathways, things like that," she explained, which did ease my worry. With that, Kaa-chan sat down to fill out the paper, which had just about everything on there. "Name, Kaiza Terumi, Age: 5...Birthday...September 23, any known elements…" she stopped before looking at me. "We'll check that when we get to the Kage building," she mentioned, before going back to the paper. After filling it all out, she gave the paperwork to Mitzu who thanked her and started to look it over as we left the Academy building. She sighed when she looked at how much time passed.

"Kaa-chan?" I called, wondering what was wrong. She seemed to know my unasked question as she answered.

"I'm not going to have enough time to finish before I have to go to the office," she said, looking kind of down.

"Well…" I started, before I remembered the 'secret' that no Kage, no matter how smart, seemed to understand. "Can't you send like...a clone of you to handle the paperwork?" I suggested, and Kaa-chan immediately stopped. I looked in anticipation for what would happen, and I was not disappointed when the Mizukage screamed at the sky saying, "WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT!" Immediately after her yell, 5 shinobi dressed in black wearing white masks appeared around the Mizukage in a defensive position.

"Are you alright, Mizukage-Sama?" Ao asked, coming to his Mizukage's side.

"...Yes, Ao," she eased. "I just had...a stunning realization presented to me," she explained, making the older man huff.

"Mizukage-sama, this is getting really old," Ao started, and I noted that mom stiffened up although she didn't say a word. "You are supposed to be the head of our village. A lady of your caliber shouldn't be doing something as trivial and childish as this. Why, back in my day…" the Kiri nin stopped in his tracks when Kaa-chan looked at him with eyes that promised death if he didn't be quiet.

"Ao…" she started sweetly, tilting her head and smiling at him. "Shut up...or I'll _melt_ you," she threatened, scaring every single person present, me excluded. I found the whole ordeal hilarious, especially when Ao's mouth gaped open, wondering what he did wrong.

"W-w-B-b-but...Mizukage-sama!" he stuttered. She simply gave a "hmph" before making a few hand signs.

" _Water Style: Water clone Jutsu_!" she said, two clones forming beside her from the mist. "You know what to do," she told the clones, who nodded before walking in the direction of the Kage Building. "You all can go on," Kaa-chan told the rest of the kiri-nin before taking my hand and walking me to the hospital. When we got there, we walked through the doors to see a lady sitting at the reception desk.

"Good morning, Mizukage-sama," the lady greeted nicely. "How may I help you?"

"Thank you, Sara. I need to get my son's information for the academy." For the second time today, the woman's mouth dropped as her eyes slowly came over to me.

"S-S-son!?" she yelled. "When...how? W-Whaaa?" She sputtered, making me giggle in amusement. Kaa-chan simply repeated what she told the man at the Academy. Sara, still somewhat shell-shocked, told us to have a seat so I could be seen.

After a few minutes, the receptionist called us back over to her desk. "Okay, Mizukage-sama, Koru will be seeing you now in room 105. The room is to your right," she guided, pointing to the hallway as she talked.

"Thank you, Sara-san," she thanked, before walking in said direction, with me right next to her. Making it to the room, Kaa-chan knocked. A few seconds later a voice said "come in," and we did.

The room was rather small, but still manageable. There was a bed with two chairs as well as a desk, most likely for the doctor. The unnerving part was the mass amount of sharp and/or creepy looking objects the doctor had. "Good morning, Mizukage-sama!" he greeted.

"Likewise, Koru," she returned, motioning for me to sit on the bed.

"So this is your son that appeared out of thin air?" he joked, examining me from head to toe.

"Yes, that's him," she said, a smile on her face. Koru started to grab a file, and started to write some things on it. After a second, he looked up from the file to see me.

"Alright, little Kaiza, will you come here and step on this scale, please?" he asked, motioning to the scale. Nodding, I jumped off the bed and walked to the scale, slowly getting on it. "42.1…" he muttered, writing the number that the scale showed. "All right, now stand by the measuring tape, please?" Once again nodding, I complied with his words. "44…" he muttered again, repeating his scribbling. "Alright, now lay down on the bed for me so I can check your organs."

Going over to the bed, I laid down while he started to do a few hand signs. I was surprised when a mint green light surrounded his hands. "Stay calm," he advised, seeing my slight discomfort. Heeding his advice, I took a deep breath before laying completely still. The man's hands swept over me for about a minute, before he stopped and started to write in his little folder again. "Congrats, Mizukage-sama; he's very healthy."

This is how it continued for a while, before Koru finished his examination. "Alright, you two, I'll be right back with the last step of the day," he told us before walking out.

"Kaa-chan?" I called, bringing her gaze to me.

"Yes, Kaiza-kun?"

"What's...the last step?" I asked fearfully, a dark pit forming in my stomach. In response, the Mizukage bit her lip as she started to look around.

"Well...Kaiza-kun...Remember that I'll always be right here when you need me," she vaguely responded. That didn't help at all, and the pit got even darker when the doctor walked in again, this time with…..

NEEDLES! "Get me away!" I shouted, my chakra unsubconsciously flaring as I looked at the worst part of a hospital.

Needles.

"Kaiza-kun, calm down!" Kaa-chan yowled, but I remained defiant, looking at the needles with pure malice.

"Those things are evil!" I screeched, causing the doctor to have a hearty laugh at my misfortune.

"Oh, boy, looks like we'll have to do it this way…" Koru said, a small smile on his face. "Forgive me Mizukage-sama, but I can't resist handling a feisty one like your child." Before I could ask what he meant, he suddenly appeared right next to me and I felt something prick me in my arm. Before I could scream bloody murder, I started to get _really_ sleepy and soon, the whole world went black.

XXXXX

Looking around, I was in a dark void, similar to when I had my dream that sent me here. However, I ignored that part and instead felt really peeved at that doctor guy for putting me to sleep. "I know...he did NOT just-" I was stopped when I started to think.

"How did I get here?" I wondered, walking around only to find out that it was a really wet place. As I started to look around, I noticed that there was little sun coming from the top of where we were, which was really creepy in itself. Also, the ground felt like dirt and other things. "Wait a second…" I said to myself, looking at a piece of coral.

"I'm underwater!" I realized. But something wasn't adding up, since I could breath just fine. Looking back, I saw that there was a little sort of a hill going out of the water. Walking cautiously, I eventually found my way outside of the deep water to a very...oceany type of place.

It was a large setting, with coral all over the place. Where I stood now seemed to be a beach, and looking back, it was a really deep blue ocean that seemed never-ending.

I couldn't think more about where I was, because I felt myself leaving from the place. Looking up, I breathed slowly as I tried to take everything in one last time.

As I left however, I almost thought I saw a small glimpse of a very large red eye with a yellow iris staring right at me.

XXXXX

Groaning, I started to blink my eyes as they focused on a figure that stood in front of me. A few seconds later, I remembered that it was Koru. Obviously not satisfied with what he did, I gave him a really strong glare.

...Well, as strong as a 5-year-old's glare could be, anyways.

Instead of being scared by me, he simply laughed as he started to speak. "Are you mad at me?" he asked.

"YOU PUT ME TO SLEEP WITH A NEEDLE! WHAT DO YOU THINK!?" I shouted. He kept his amused face on as he held out something to me. "What...is that?" I asked cautiously.

"A piece of candy," he responded. "Since you did well at the beginning, and went to sleep without too much fuss," he reminded, making me scowl again, "You deserve it." Looking at Kaa-chan, she nodded with a smile, which meant it was okay to take the candy.

I grabbed the sweet food from the doctor as Kaa-chan started to rise from her chair. "Thank you," I said, showing off my good manners, which he noted.

"My, isn't he respectful," Koru said.

"I wouldn't expect anything else," Kaa-chan replied, giving Koru a final farewell before we exited the hospital. It looked like we were walking back to the Academy to give the front desk guy the papers so I could go to school soon. As we walked along, I remained quiet, wondering about different things. "Are you alright?" I heard suddenly. Looking up, I saw Kaa-chan giving me a slightly worried look.

"I'm just thinking about something…" I responded.

"About what?" she pressed.

"You said you would melt Ao earlier," I started, hiding what I was really thinking about. "How can you melt someone?" In response, she gave a snort of laughter at my words with a few shakes of her head.

"Kaiza-Kun, I have two Kekkai Genkai," she started.

"Kekkai Genkai?" I echoed.

"Yes, Kekkai Genkai are special abilities that one possess," she explained. "Usually, they are passed down by a clan, and in most cases involve advanced chakra manipulation, which is the internal blending of two or more elements to make a new sub-element."

"For example," she continued. "In the Terumi clan, we can combine Fire and Earth chakra in order to create Lava jutsu. Also, we can combine Fire and Water in the same manner to create Steam jutsu."

"Do you think...I'll be able to melt people, too?" I asked, feeling really excited.

"Hmmm…" she wondered. "Well...I wouldn't know. When we use the chakra paper, we'll find out. Don't be disappointed if you don't have one of my bloodlines, since you aren't my birth child." Satisfied for the moment, we went into the Academy to drop the lab results to the front desk guy, before returning to the Mizukage building.

As Kaa-chan opened the door, I peered inside to see her two clones hard at work with the large stack of papers that she got everyday. In fact, the papers looked like they were nearly finished. "How has the progress been?" Kaa-chan asked the clones happily.

"We finished over half of our daily paperwork," the clone on the right responded.

"Kaiza-kun?" Kaa-chan called. "Can you help that clone sort the papers? After we get done, I promise we'll find out your elemental affinities." Nodding in anticipation of what my affinities would be, I dived head-first into the large stack of papers along with the other water clone my mom built.

It seemed that clones made everything go faster, because in the next two hours, we finished all of the paperwork for the day. "Thank all of you," Kaa-chan said to us, before the two clones beside me dispelled.

"Can we find my elements now?" I asked eagerly, awaiting this moment.

Man, I really hoped I had a lava affinity. That would be the coolest.

"Alright, alright," Kaa-chan said, pulling out a piece of white paper from her desk. "Now, if you have a water affinity, the paper will get wet: fire, it will burn, earth, it will crumble to dust, lightning, it will wrinkle, and wind, it will split in half," she quickly summarized.

"If I have lava?" I asked.

"If you have lava, this will happen," Kaa-chan said, before applying chakra to the piece of paper. A third got wet, another third burned, and another third crumpled to dust. However, as it happened, some steam was released where the fire and water met, and some molten rock-like shape came between the earth and fire elements. Taking out another piece of paper, Kaa-chan gave me a piece of paper, and instructed me to channel my chakra into the paper. Focusing really hard, I felt my chakra appear and directed it to go to the paper. It was really interesting when I directed my chakra; it felt as if there was a living force traveling through my body.

When my chakra went into the paper, I almost jumped in anticipation, hardly able to wait any longer. When I finally got results, I thanked the God I knew I always loved.

The paper got completely wet, which made me deflate a little before what happened next. Half of the now wet paper went into flames, while the other half crumbled.

And as if Lady Luck shined upon me, a little piece of molten-rock appeared right in between.

XXXXX

A/N: Welp...that's it! School has been a hassle, as usual, however on a more positive note, we are getting way more day to day praise going on! Church has been good to us and we know that things will look up as long as we live right and praise even harder!

On a….non-religious note, I'll see y'all soon!

Blizzard, out!


	5. Time for the Academy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: Hey y'all! Let's dive right back into the story! ((Quick notice, in this story, the Academy begins on August 23rd and ends on the 3rd Friday in May))

 _Two weeks later…_

Getting up out of bed, I found myself sleeping less than usual, though with good reason.

Who wouldn't be racing with nervousness on their first day of the Academy? Shivering in excitement, I went over to the window to look outside. The night dominated the sky, and while it was a new moon, the stars still shone brilliantly. Looking at the stars, I started to think of my short time in Kiri.

The Academy started today, which was really nerve-wracking. I really wanted to make a good impression, and make Kaa-chan proud. Speaking of which, Kaa-chan started to give me a little training. It didn't include too much, only some physical exercises like running, push-ups and sit-ups, along with a chakra control thing she called "tree-walking."

Overall, they were hard, but thankfully, I was never one to quit. When training got really hard, I just kept on going and hid any discomfort I thought I had. Kaa-chan told me not to push it, though, and I did listen to her.

Something weird did start to occur often, although it's not too terribly common. Ever since about a week ago, a few civilians started to give me strange looks, like they hated me. I couldn't tell what it was about, especially since I didn't do anything to anyone.

Well….I didn't do anything to _many_ people. They still gave me looks of either fear or hatred, though, which I found kind of messed up. I asked Kaa-chan about it, and she told me a lesson about sealing. She talked about a kunai in a scroll not becoming the scroll, but just being held inside the scroll. I listened to her explanation and although I didn't know what it had to do with me, I kept it in my mind just in case it became necessary later down the road.

Eventually, I just found it easier to disregard their looks. As long as I knew that the haters were in the minority, and I knew that I did no harm to them, I had no reason to feel guilty.

Finishing my long list of thoughts, I went back to my bed and laid down for a bit, before looking at a book that was on my nightstand. It was something about learning how to use water chakra, as Kaa-chan gave it to me a few days ago. She said that even though we weren't going to begin learning elemental jutsu this early, it would still help to get a grasp of the fundamentals and mechanisms behind the water style.

Reading more of the book, I stayed in bed until I noticed that the sun started to climb further and further into the air. Looking at the little clock on the nightstand, it said 5:26. I knew that school didn't start until 7:30, but I didn't want to rush. Rushing was really crappy, and I always knew that when I rushed, I forgot something. Going to the door, I opened it and walked out too see Kaa-chan, dressed and already prepared for the day.

"You really do wake up early," she commented, coming to me and giving me a little kiss on my forehead as a way to say "good morning."

"I must be one of those morning people, then," I replied, knowing that Kaa-chan would sleep in much more if she could.

"Apparently..." she muttered, as she had a deep confusion about morning people. She even ranted about it one day when she caught me trying to sneak one of her cookies out her jar in the middle of the morning.

Needless to say, she was not the most pleasant person in the morning, especially when someone else wakes her up.

"Are you ready for the Academy?" she asked, knowing that I could hardly wait. I even asked Kaa-chan about her time in the Academy, although she said it was much more cruel than it would be now.

"Yeah!" I near shouted.

"Then, let's get you fresh," she told me, before we doing the morning ritual. For the first day of school, I decided on wearing a blue shirt that included a white whale and a black whale swirling around each other underwater, along with some blue shorts and blue sandals. Looking at the time afterwards, we saw that it was only 6:17, and that we had more than enough time to make breakfast, we did so and enjoyed it, talking to each other about what I thought the Academy was, as well as a barrage of questions about the Academy.

After we finished eating, I got my bookbag and ninja tools out of my room before coming down to see that Kaa-chan packed some lunch for me. "Thank you, Kaa-chan!" I thanked, giving her a hug at the unexpected food.

"It was no problem, Kaiza-kun, but we don't want to be late, do we?" she said. Agreeing with her, we headed out of the house and started our morning trek to the Academy. Once again, I noticed while many of the people would greet Kaa-chan warmly and with a large smile, some would give me a wary look or even a glare at times. Although I tried not to let it bother me, I unconsciously clung closer to Kaa-chan, who simply sighed and ruffled up my blue hair in an attempt to cheer me up.

When we got to the Academy, we stopped for a second at the entrance along with many other parents to say our goodbyes. "I'll see you soon, Kaa-chan," I said to her.

"See, you soon, Kaiza-kun," she returned, giving me a paper. "This is where your classroom is. Remember not to cause trouble, and always be on your best!" she said in a little speech. She then gave me a kiss and went on her way to work in the Kage building. After watching the Mizukage walk away, I turned away myself and walked into the Academy. Going by the signs on the walls, I took a right onto the first set of hallways that said to include the room put on the paper Kaa-chan gave to me.

' _110...111...113...There!_ ' I thought, looking at the door to room 114. Taking a deep breath, I let it out and dropped my shoulders before opening the door.

There were already about ten kids in the room, although by the size of the classroom and the amount of chairs leftover, many more were to come. Not wanting to cause too much attention, I quickly took a seat around the front of the class, on the left side next to a kid with blue hair and pretty big glasses. "Hi!" I greeted to him, making him look really uncomfortable. "Uhh...I'm Kaiza," I revealed while scratching my head, not wanting to make him so nervous.

"Hi, uhh….I'm Chojuro," he returned, a little smile forming on his face. "Nice...to meet you."

"You too!" I returned. After that shaky start, we stayed in silence, although I could tell we picked up something that wouldn't be shaken away too quickly.

After a while, the classroom filled in, and soon enough, the bell rung, signifying that class had officially begun. "Alright, listen up!" the teacher shouted, a man with brown hair as well as pale skin and a gray Kiri chunin vest on him. When the kids quieted, he began once again to speak.

"Welcome to the Academy. My name is Shoru and over here is Oruko," he greeted. "Now, for an icebreaker, I'm going to go down the list in alphabetical order. When I call out your name, you tell us your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies whatever they may be, and your dream for when you get older." As he finished the instructions, he grabbed the clipboard that sat on his desk and looked at the first name. "Ariko Akiza, please stand."

A girl in the middle of the room stood up in response to the teacher's call. She wore a bow across her brown hair, along with a green shirt and some black pants. "I'm Ariko Akiza," she started. "I like money, nice jewelry, swords, and grape juice. I dislike old people, creepy people, weird people and disturbing people. I like reading and polishing swords. My dream is to run a weapon shop one day."

"Alright," Shoru said, somewhat impressed with the girl's detailed description. "Bawaka Sura…" It continued like this for a long while, and I mostly tuned it out while waiting for my name or Chojuro's name to be called.

"...Kirishi Chojuro," our teacher called out at last. Looking expectantly, Chojuro seemed really nervous to the point where I could see his hands shaking slightly.

"Don't be worried," I whispered to him. It seemed to have a positive effect, as he took a deep breath while he stood up and turned around to face the rest of the class.

"My name...is Kirishi Chojuro," he began. "I like...Kenjutsu and water. I like pears, fish, and learning about swords. I dislike oily food and mean people...I like swimming and looking at Kenjutsu styles...My dream is to become one of the Seven Swordsmen."

Looking at Chojuro, I was really surprised. He had some really big dreams, and he seemed to have some real conviction when he mentioned his dream. While I processed what Chojuro said, I tuned out the other voices that went afterwards, until another familiar name was called.

"Terumi Kaiza," Shoru-sensei called. Getting up, I turned around to look at the rest of the class, which looked to be about twenty more kids, give or take a couple. Taking a deep breath, I thought about what I would say, before I started to talk.

"My name is Terumi Kaiza," I started. "I like apples, water jutsu, sea animals, and the ocean. I dislike sour food, rude people and perverts. My dream…" I stopped for a second, before closing my eyes. A few seconds later, I opened my eyes again and continued my introduction. "My dream is to become a great shinobi like my Kaa-chan, and make great friends."

A few kids sniggered at the last part of my mini-speech, but I ignored it and sat down.

"Yakuza Saruka," Shoru-sensei called once again.

"My name is Yakuza Saruka," the black haired girl called out. "I like mushrooms and peace and quiet, I dislike demons, and I like to write," she said, and somehow I felt like "demon" was reflected towards me. "My dream is to make my father proud."

"Alright, now that we're done with introductions," Shoru-sensei started. "Everyone, come down and get a book. We're going to start with the history of Kiri's founding."

Not liking what I heard, I made a small groan at the realization that this was most likely going to be a _really_ boring lecture followed by a _really_ boring test followed by a _really_ boring everything else.

'This...is not what I had in mind…' I thought as the teacher started his long and boring explanation about the founding of the shinobi villages, with special emphasis on Kirigakure.

XXXXX

Nearly asleep, I had trouble reading my book and yawned once again, before an eraser hit me right in the face.

"Wake up, Terumi!" Shoru-sensei shouted, smirking when I gave him a soft glare. Huffing a little bit, I returned back to my book, when the bell rang. "Alright, be back here in 45 minutes!" Sensei called out, and I quickly grabbed my lunchbox and got followed the many kids to the outside where we had lunch.

Looking around, I searched for a place to sit until I found Chojuro eating alone at a bench. Deciding that it may be good to sit with him, I started to walk towards him before some kids went towards Chojuro as well. Stopping for a second, I wondered if they were his friends before I started to hear their conversation.

"Hey you, give us some of that food!" one said, making me realize that they were bullies! Running over, I saw that they had started to crowd around Chojuro while they threatened to beat him up.

"Hey, stop it!" I yelled, making the three bullies turn around.

They were a little bit taller and obviously older than me, but I still stood my ground and refused to show any sign of fear. "Hah, a pipsqueak!" the one in the middle said. "Get outta here, or else we'll beat you up too."

"Come try me!" I countered, making the kids even more angry.

"You're gonna regret it!" the bully said before he and his group ganged up on me. Not being too well versed in taijutsu, it wasn't too hard to see that I had a disadvantage against the kids that ganged up on me. Going first, I quickly punched one of the kids in the face, making him take a few steps back in pain.

"You brat!" he seethed, covering his jaw where I hit him. Before I could do anything else, the first bully punched me in my stomach, sending me to my knees and knocking the wind out of me. I then felt a kick lay me on my side. On my back, I quickly rolled away from the three before they surrounded me. Getting back up, I saw that I was backed to a fence and that the three came over, looking for blood.

Thinking fast, I remembered a quick move Kaa-chan taught me for self-defense in case I ever needed it. Using a hand sign that she called the "ram seal," all three kids stopped while I took a big deep breath.

" **RAAAAPIIISTSSSS!** " I yowled at the top of my lungs, amplified by the jutsu that Kaa-chan told me. It had the desired effect, as the bullies all covered their ears in pain, and seconds later, two Academy instructors burst onto the scene.

"What's going on here!?" one asked, looking at the situation that I was in. "Are you picking on this boy?" she demanded from the three boys.

"N-no!" the leader denied. "W-we-"

"No excuses," she interrupted, obviously not pleased. "You stay away from this kid, and make sure you be on time for detention!" she said, before leaving the scene, one instructor staying behind to make sure the bullies left me and Chojuro alone.

"...Hey!" I said to the boy again, sitting on the bench that he sat on.

"Hi, Kaiza...Thank...you," he said to me. "Wanna….eat lunch together?" he invited.

"Sure!" I agreed. Opening both of our lunch packs, we both ate while talking about small things like Kenjutsu and cool water jutsu.

It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship…

XXXXX

A/N: Yeah….I'm gonna end it on a corny note. I really don't feel like doing all that Academy stuff, so I'm just gonna do a timeskip or two. Anyway, I'll see y'all later!


	6. The Secret is Revealed

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: Hey there! I know you're craving a read….so read. :P

XXXXX

 _Two years later…_

Things had really been sweet so far.

After that fiasco of a time called the First Day of School, Chojuro and I became really good friends. Often, we'd play after the Academy and trained together along with Kaa-chan and maybe Ao, when he's actually in a good mood.

Today, Chojuro and I walked from the Academy talking about different things. "You did what?" Chojuro said, his mouth gaping like a fish after I told him a story of a prank I did on Kaa-chan.

"Yup!" I responded. "She didn't even notice for a day!"

"That...is cruel," my friend said. "How could you make her do all that extra paperwork?"

"Well, she didn't do it," I explained. "It was the genjutsu they're teaching us at school.

Starting this year, we stopped doing boring history classes for the most part, and started with shinobi training. That included unlocking chakra, starting on the _Hidden Mist Jutsu_ and basic genjutsu.

The first two were pretty easy, but for some reason genjutsu started out as a real hassle. Despite asking the teachers, who sometimes would just be rude or ignore me, and help from Chojuro, it wouldn't come together. Eventually, I asked Kaa-chan, and she told me that my chakra control was going to start pretty crappy because I had large reserves. What did that mean?

I had to walk up a tree a lot. Then afterwards?

I had to walk on water a lot more. Could it get crazier?

I had to walk up a waterfall Kaa-chan made from a jutsu. Yup, fun.

It wasn't without benefits, however, because as soon enough my chakra control came to a point where I could start to do normal genjutsu.

Kaa-chan also started me on using my elements since she thought it would be good to start early, and I might have pestered her quite a bit about it. In that little section, I found that I was really good with water jutsu, although that in part was because of the book Kaa-chan gave me a few years back. She also said water was easily my strongest element, since the whole paper wet first instead of being an equal split, apparently.

We did a little fire jutsu as well, but we didn't quite touch on that yet because Kaa-chan didn't want to overload me with too many things. She said we were gonna take it nice and steady, which I couldn't find fault in. Earth jutsu were the same thing as fire.

Chojuro, on the other hand, became really good with his Kenjutsu. He started to learn a really cool style, and he always won if we did kenjutsu spars. Not that I sucked at Kenjutsu, Chojuro was just better than me. A lot better than me.

"I wish I could've seen that," Chojuro continued, giving small snickers as we walked to Kaa-chan and my house.

"Don't worry, it wasn't too exciting," I said as I went and opened the door. "Well, not as exciting as my birthday will be!" My birthday was actually tomorrow, and I couldn't wait for it. Celebrating a birthday was really important to me, because it was a really cool day. I mean, isn't another year to live a blessing?

I thought so, anyway, and apparently, that fit in with the common ninja consensus, which helped.

"Kaa-chan! We're here!" I called out. A few moments later, she came out of the living room with a smile on her face. Ever since she figured out the secret to paperwork, she finished her weekly paperwork much faster, and therefore had a lot more time to spend with me. Though she was busy anyways without paperwork, I usually got to spend a lot of time with her on the weekends, Friday afternoon included.

"Hello, Kaiza-kun, Chojuro-kun. How was the Academy?" she asked us.

"I-I-It was g-g-good, M-Mizukage-Sama," Chojuro quietly responded.

"That's nice to hear. Did little Kaiza-kun get in trouble?"

"Kaa-chan!" I yelled, embarrassed that she would ask that. "Do you think your sweet, innocent boy would ever get in trouble?"

"Tell that to my multiplying paperwork, young man," she shot back, giving me a dirty look as I let out a small giggle.

Apparently, Kaa-chan took grudges involving paperwork for a long time.

"Anyways, come on and have some food," she continued, motioning to the kitchen table. "You'll need some for training. You too, Chojuro-kun." Walking into the room, we saw a few bento ready for us to eat. Sitting down, we ate while talking about what happened at school today, though being watchful as not to say anything reckless in front of Kaa-chan.

"Are you two ready?" she asked when we just about finished our food.

"Yup!" I answered, the both of us pushing our chairs in before following Kaa-chan outside to the training ground. The grounds were fairly simple; there was a small stream for water jutsu, some training targets, and lots of space for the more dangerous stuff.

"Alright, for the two of you, I'll just work on the _Hidden Mist Jutsu_ , then we'll have a spar between you and me, Kaiza-kun after you and Chojuro-kun finish." We nodded at her words before she began again. "Now, I want both of you to do the jutsu one at a time, since I want to see how much visibility you can erase from your opponent. Chojuro, you'll go first. Kaiza-kun, you'll practice being as silent as possible along with Chojuro-kun. Don't let me catch you."

We steeled ourselves as Chojuro began the jutsu, the water from the stream slowly spreading around us as a mist like its namesake began to surge. In a few moments, the mist came to the point where it was a lot harder to see, although Chojuro was still visible, if barely.

Steadying my breathing, I started to move around in the mist as silent as possible, which I was proud to say really silently. Separating from Chojuro, I started to walk in the opposite distance from the two of them, and found a hiding spot in a tree shrouded by the mist.

Silently jumping to the top of the tree, I waited on the branch for a moment, my ears keen for any sound that could give away Kaa-chan's position. All of a sudden, I got a chill up my spine, and I immediately jumped off the tree branch.

Luckily, my sense was right as no sooner after my leap, 4 water bullets darted right into the tree where I was. Realizing that I had been found, I kept to the defensive immediately, alert for anything that could come through the mist. I found that she already knew where I was going to be no matter how calm I kept myself.

Dodging barrage on barrage of water bullets, I ran over to the river where I thought it would be safer.

Oh, boy, I was really wrong.

" _Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu_!" a voice said quietly. Before I could get away, I found myself in a dome surrounded by water. A few seconds later, the mist dissipated to reveal that Chojuro was captured as well, surrounded by stones that apparently rose out of the ground.

"You two improved a lot," Kaa-chan complimented, releasing the two of us from our respective prisons. "Chojuro, you need to work on making your jutsu thicker. I could see thin outlines of the two of you," she started, before turning to me. "You should've thought better. It wouldn't be smart or tactical to ever go near water when fighting an opponent that specializes in water jutsu." Nodding my head at her words, I took it to my memory bank as she assumed position a little distance away from us again. "Alright, Kaiza-kun, it's your turn," she advised.

'Okay...let's do this,' I thought, before going through the necessary handsigns. Unlike Chojuro, my mist started to form on its own instead of me using the stream as a water source. Letting my chakra flow as freely as possible, I didn't stop until I was sure the mist was thick enough. Looking down, it satisfied me to see that I could barely see my feet in a mist so thick.

Drawing a blunt kunai, I started to wade through the mist, trying to keep an eye on wherever Kaa-chan would pop up. Strangely, there was no sound at all, even when Kaiza applied chakra to his ears to help out his senses.

A few seconds later, a scream would be heard, drawing my attention to the left. I quickly went over to the source, to see that Chojuro was trapped. Trying to rescue him, I silently went over to him before I found that I was now encased in rocks. Looking back at Chojuro, I was shocked to see that he was no longer there, but hearing a gasp a few feet away, I could get that he got grabbed too. Sighing, I let down the mist and waited as it retreated to see Kaa-chan standing there.

"Your mist has also improved, Kaiza-kun," Kaa-chan said, before going into her analysis. "However, both of you missed that you were in a genjutsu from the very moment we began," she revealed, shocking the both of us.

"Well...that sucked."

"Indeed, and it's something you need to learn to be more aware of, especially when the two of you become genin." Assuming a thinking pose for a second, Kaa-chan stood for a second before remembering her next set of directions. "Now it's time for the two of you to have a spar. Anything goes, but no ninjutsu, Kaiza." With the rules established, we went to opposing sides of the field while Kaa-chan stood in the middle of us. "...Begin!" she suddenly said, before stepping back.

Immediately, I threw a few blunt kunai at my friend, who blocked them incredibly easily with his wooden sword before rushing forward. Getting ready for a close range fight, I took out my wooden sword as well, and our two attacks met. Knowing I was the slightly faster one out of the two of us, I quickly tried a horizontal swipe.

In response, he jumped back before jumping right back at me. With the extra momentum behind his blow, I almost got sent to my back, but managed to block it anyway before sending Chojuro away with a kick. Thinking fast, I threw another blunt kunai at him while running forward. As expected he blocked the kunai, which gave me the chance I needed.

Doing a roundhouse kick, I kicked his sword hand down before using my wooden sword to disarm him, his sword flying a few feet away. Before I could pin Chojuro down, however, he punched me in the face before jumping back. Waving off the pain, I advanced on him, taking a few swings that he dodged. He then clasped my wooden sword with both of his hands during a downward slash, and I quickly let go of the sword without any fuss, surprising the blue-haired kid.

Now with a clear opening, I kicked his feet out from under him, and grabbed the wooden sword back from Chojuro before placing it at his throat.

"That's enough," Kaa-chan declared, but I was too busy celebrating my first ever win against Chojuro.

"YATTA!" I cheered, jumping in joy, before I went back to reality. "Are you alright, Chojuro?" I asked. Already back up, he dusted himself off before responding.

"Yes, I'm fine. You really are strong," he said.

"You too!" I returned, slightly rubbing my jaw. "That punch hurt…"

"Sorry," he chuckled, scratching his head while smiling softly. "I-I think Mizukage-sama is waiting," he told me, spurring me to turn around to see Kaa-chan standing a little ways away.

"Indeed, Kaiza-kun. I want you to take the first shot."

"Chojuro? Wanna do this together?" I asked. At first, he looked hesitant, before he took a deep breath and nodded, walking right next to me. Smiling, I knew his answer as I threw a few kunai at Kaa-chan. She gracefully avoided all three of them before throwing some of her shuriken. Not sure if they were real or not, we definitely took no chances and avoided them.

Sharing a look, Chojuro and I started to come at Kaa-chan from both sides, hoping to jump her. Attacking first, I swung at her only for her to grab my hand before swinging me into Chojuro. The two of us hit the ground before quickly separating and watched Kaa-chan make hand signs, our eyes widening.

" _Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu_!" she said, before a large fireball the size of the two of us combined started gunning straight towards us.

Thinking fast, I started my hand signs for one of the few jutsu that I knew. I secretly studied it while Kaa-chan wasn't looking for a surprise.

" _Water Style: Water Wall Jutsu_!" I thought, a large amount of water pouring out my mouth before scaling upward to make a giant wall of water some 20 feet tall. The fireball was absorbed by the water wall, before said wall came crashing down, effectively forming a small bog around us.

Before Chojuro could say anything, I got a chill up my spine. Grabbing Chojuro's hand, I pulled him out of the way as a few water bullets barely shot by us. Looking back at the source, we saw Kaa-chan dashing towards us at a really fast pace. Preparing for an assault, Chojuro got his sword ready while I did the same.

As she came over, we assumed a defensive position as she started to attack us. After blocking a punch with my sword, I almost got disarmed after the kage slammed her foot into my wooden sword. As a result for not getting the sword tossed aside, it broke in half.

Silently cursing my luck, I threw the stump away before making some distance between us. Throwing some shuriken, she had to avoid it, which gave Chojuro enough of a distraction to make a tactical retreat.

While I was only a little tired, Chojuro really went through the ringer. He panted heavily, and was drenched in sweat.

"Do...you have any other...jutsu?" he basically wheezed out. In response, I nodded before making more hand signs for another water jutsu.

" _Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu_!" I called, bullets of water flying out of my mouth. Instead of dodging like before, Kaa-chan started to do hand signs of her own at lightning speed.

" _Lava Style: Lava Wall Jutsu_!" she said, a wall of lava sprouting out of her mouth, similar to my water wall from a little while ago. While the lava was falling down after vaporizing the water bullets, Chojuro threw more shuriken while I ran forward, hoping to get the drop on Kaa-chan.

What I _wasn't_ hoping on was her jumping over the lava, throwing shuriken at the both of us. Caught completely unaware, I staggered back unsteadily before I found myself with a kunai on my neck by a water clone. Looking back, I saw that Chojuro found himself in the same predicament.

A few seconds later, the water clone around me dissipated as I looked back to see Kaa-chan next to Chojuro.

"You two are going to be fine shinobi one day if you continue at that rate," she said warmly, smiling with no small amount of pride. "Kaiza-kun, where did you learn that water wall? I only taught you the water bullet and fireball jutsu."

"Well...I kinda learned it while you were away. Ya know, just a good surprise for you," I revealed.

"Well, it was definitely a surprise," she admitted. "How about we go back to the house for a while?" We both nodded and followed Kaa-chan back to the house where Chojuro and I continued to spend some time with Kaa-chan.

XXXXX

 _The next day…_

Looking outside the window, I gave a bright smile as I saw the sun slowly rising. I let out a huge breath of happiness, my eyes feeling like they sparkled as I was really happy today.

Why? It was my eighth birthday. Also, it was the day I would learn why Kaa-chan was so shocked when Ao did his creepy eye thingy. Something told me that it would explain why some of the villagers have a stink eye reserved for me as well, but it was too good a day to be so down in the dumps! Deciding to savor the day as much as possible. I quickly got out some clothes before showering, seeing that Kaa-chan had to handle some last minute business.

'Aw well, I'll go see her at her office,' I decided as I entered the bathroom and began my morning rituals. When I finished, I came out in a turquoise shirt complete with a large blue serpent coiling in water and some blue shorts. Going into the kitchen, I grabbed a breakfast bento and quickly ate it before getting leaving the house. As I walked down the street, the looks I had come to ignore continued on, but I blissfully ignored it, too happy to be brought down by some crazy people.

Coming into the Kage building, I went over to the secretary's desk; for some reason there was a different secretary than before. "Hello?" I asked, causing the lady to look up. "Is Kaa-chan alone? I wanted to-"

"Just go up there, you brat," she interrupted harshly. "And don't even think about possessing me, you...demon thing."

Not impressed, I gave her a stone cold look that shouldn't be on a 5-year old's face. "...You wouldn't even be worth it," I said, before abruptly turning and going up the stairs to Kaa-chan's room. Knocking first, I waited until I heard a "come in." Opening the door, I came to see three Mizukage taking down paperwork like it was nothing. Looking over, I saw that there were only about 20 or so papers left over until the pile was done.

"Hey, Kaa-chan," I said.

"Hello, Kaiza-kun," she returned, before she looked up to see my face. "...Is something wrong, my little kame?" She stopped doing her paperwork completely when I hesitated to answer. "What happened? Was it a bully?"

"The secretary...it wasn't Kozika like the other times. She called me a 'demon thing' and told me not to possess her," I explained, slightly looking down. I know she wasn't worth getting sad over, but something about that just bothered me.

"Is...that so?" Kaa-chan said, blasting what I guess is KI, all over the place. Looking up, I saw her gritting her teeth and making fists so hard that her pen snapped. "Go handle that secretary," she told one of the clones, who nodded obediently and left the room just as angry as the original Kaa-chan.

"Can you...tell me why?" I said quietly. She perked back up after getting another pen out and sighed.

"I will…Come help me finish this paperwork first, though." Nodding, I took the clone's place with the paperwork and we finished in about ten minutes. With all of the paper settled, I sat on the chair right in front of her desk. Kaa-chan stopped for a second before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. When she exhaled, her green eyes looked straight into mine.

"Kaiza-kun, did the Academy teach you about jinchuriki yet?" she asked me, making me think about what Shoru-sensei told us. "Sensei said...that we'd start that in November, after unit 2," I told her. She nodded, although she somewhat discreetly rolled her eyes in annoyance, making me smirk a little bit.

"Kaiza-kun, a jinchuriki is someone that contains a tailed beast inside of them," she started, and my eyes instantly widened.

"Like Yagura?" I interjected. She nodded in confirmation.

"There are nine tailed beast scattered around the ninja villages. Two are in Iwa, one is in Taki, one is in Suna, one in Konoha, two in Kumo, and….there used to be two here in Kiri as well." She stopped for a second before continuing. "In Kiri, we had the three tails and the six tails jinchuriki."

"Where are they?" I asked, not on board completely.

"One is a missing-nin by the name of Utakata," she answered.

"And the three-tails jinchuriki?" Kaa-chan seemed to bite her lip, and her eyes started to glass over a bit before she responded.

"It's you, Kaiza-kun."

Time seemed to stop the very second the words came out of her mouth. I didn't say anything, only looked at Kaa-chan, who looked like she was begging for me to say something, anything, really. "What does the three-tails look like?" I finally asked, more curious than anything else.

"It is a turtle with one eye and three shrimp-like tails," she answered. "Are...you alright?"

"Yeah, Kaa-chan! It's just a turtle!" I said, smiling again while my blue hair slightly covered my right eye. Kaa-chan gave a great breath of relief, coming over and hugging me tightly.

"I'm so happy, my little kame-kun. Now, let's go," she told me. Nodding, I went to pick up her bento when I realized I didn't tell her it was hers.

"Oh, Kaa-chan. Here's your bento."

"I won't need it Kaiza-kun, but thank you." Rather than asking why not, I smiled and exited the Kage building with her. As we passed by the secretary's desk, it was funny to see the secretary who insulted me earlier almost bald and with a broken lens on her glasses. Laughing openly, I enjoyed her glare instead of being disturbed by it. Kaa-chan seemed to enjoy the moment as well, even spiting the lady by wishing her a good day.

Getting to the house, I waited calmly while Kaa-chan got out her keys, and opened the door. Walking in, I immediately started for my room before I heard Kaa-chan call me.

"Kame-kun, come to the living room, please." Wondering what she needed, I walked down and turned the corner to the living room for a chorus of shouts to be thrown right in my face.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" all of them yelled. It was Kaa-chan, Chojuro, Ao, Ko, Ka, and Ki, the three hunter-nin triplets, and Karemai, a civilian who worked at my favorite cookie bakery. Not able to hold all of it in, I cried in the moment while giving a rallying cheer of my own. "Let's celebrate!"

Everyone seemed to agree, but only Karemai moved. A few seconds later, she came back with a chocolate cake with white icing and sprinkles in a circle around the words, "Happy Birthday Kaiza!" written around it. "Now we can get started!" she said, where we started to dig in the food.

I wanted to eat all of the cake, but Kaa-chan stopped me, saying that I could have a little every week and I couldn't pig out and eat it all in one day. Despite not liking it, I understood her. While Karemai and I had a conversation about how the restaurant was going, Chojuro came to me with a little box in his hands.

"K-Kaiza, here you go," he said.

"What's this?" I asked, slowly grabbing the box.

"Open it," he told me. Nodding to his instructions, I opened it to find a cool necklace with a large shark tooth on it.

"Thank you Chojuro!" I said, giving my best friend a large hug before a thought came to my mind. "How did you get this? You didn't wrestle any sharks, did you?"

"No, the kid asked me to," Ao answered, coming with his own gift. "And, I got you this little scroll. It has a few water jutsu and an earth jutsu for you."

"Thank you, Ao! I bet they're cool jutsu," I said, before a loud huff caused me to look up at a frowning Ao.

"Even you too! I'm too old for this," he started, making Kaa-chan freeze in the background. "Jutsu are supposed to be tools to help you succeed in the ninja world. They are not supposed to be cool, or be something to show off with. They are tools to get a mission done and help you fight against opponents, as well as aid allies. I tell you, back in my day.."

"Ao…" Kaa-chan quietly called, before looking up and giving him a scary-sweet smile. "Shut up...or I'll teach Kaiza-kun a birthday jutsu and _melt_ you."

"WHAAAAA?!" Ao shouted, while we all laughed at the predicament we got himself into. After that fiasco, the presents kept coming, with Karemai giving me a "free Kaiza cookies" coupon for 6 months, much to Kaa-chan's silent chagrin, and the hunter triplets gave me another scroll, just like Ao's.

"This is for some cool hunter techniques. Using senbon as well," Ko said, before Kaa-chan gave me her gift, another scroll.

"These are a few more jutsu we'll work on. There's a lava jutsu or two there as well," she explained, her smile getting wider when I realized what she implied.

"So...we're gonna...learn how to melt things?"

"Why yes, yes we are," she said, before giving an evil stare at Ao, who nervously backed away from the two of us. "Also…" she started again, before going to the kitchen. I looked through and I couldn't see anything, although my curiosity was soon answered when Kaa-chan came through with a...wait, am I seeing right? It looked like a brown ca-

"A KITTY!" I yelled in realization before I ran over and gently grabbed her from Kaa-chan's arms. She was a beautiful amber color, with white paws and amber eyes as well. She looked amazing.

"Since you've been complaining about having a kitten for years, I thought-"

"Thank you, Kaa-chan! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I said profusely, hugging her tightly while the kitten jumped on my head.

"Your welcome, my little Kame-kun," she replied warmly. "So...What are you going to name her?"

"..." I stayed quiet, taking the kitten off my head to take a closer look at her. Her beautiful brown eyes looked right into mine as I thought of a name. Suddenly, it came to me. "Do you like the name Twilight?" I asked her. She didn't move for a second, but she then purred in content and rubbed her head on my cheek. "Twilight it is!"

"Where'd you get that name from?" Chojuro asked.

"Her fur looks like the sunset at twilight time," I explained. "Her eyes look really cute, too." Satisfied, he nodded and scratched Twilight's ear, her purring in felicity, making me smile.

I think I just got the best animal ever.

XXXXX

After a few more hours of talking and party games, Chojuro and the others left home, leaving just me and Kaa-chan, along with Twilight. Since Twilight became a part of the family, Kaa-chan let me bring her in my room to sleep, although she gave some strict rules about using the bathroom in the right place and not scratching everything to shreds.

That's where I was now, sitting in my bed with Twilight on my lap. Her head laid on my right thigh as I gave her belly a good scratch. Thinking about something, I picked up Twilight and slowly put her on the bed next to me. I then laid down under the covers and wished my new kitten good night before I retreated into my mind and slept.

XXXXX

Feeling myself in a different place, I opened my eyes to see that I was in the same room where I left last time when the evil doctor shoved a needle in my arm. This time, however, I was above water. Looking at the long-reaching water, I noticed a large piece of coral shaped like a dome slightly sticking out of the water.

"How am I going to get there?" I wondered aloud, knowing that even if I water-walked, I wouldn't be able to see what's actually in the coral dome. That's when it hit me: I could walk in the water without drowning. Slowly entering the water, I stopped for a second as soon as I completely submerged to make sure that I wasn't drowning, before continuing forward.

The water grew dimmer and dimmer, but I could still see the underwater ocean without much difficulty. Fish and turtles swam around, there were starfish and the occasional octopus and shark, although none of them really went crazy that I was there. Walking past them, a little more light started to enter the water and I found myself at the dome that I saw above ground.

Not knowing what to do, I simply called out to whatever could be there. "Hello?" I said, tipping my head as I looked through the gaps in between the coral.

A minute or two passed, and I started to think that nothing was there after all. Turning back, I began to walk away until a large shift came out from the ground below me. Doing a complete 180, I turned to see a large red eye with a yellow iris staring right at me.

" **So...This is my jailer?** " the figure said, and I soon was able to distinguish the creature; it had one eye, a large gray shell, and three shrimp-looking tails curling up above it.

"Uh…." I gaped when I realized that this was the three-tails in its full glory. "Hey there…"

XXXXX

A/N: Hey y'all! Here's the chapter! Sorry I was so late, but having to deal with a thing called Irma is pretty irritating...We're good though! In Georgia, my area only got a few bad trees, and the cable and stuff went out for a while. I'll be seeing y'all!

P.S: For the next chapter, I'm probably gonna do another time skip or two before the "Genin Arc" begins, or whatever you wanna call it. I'm still going to show incremental progress, though. That's it!

Blizzard, out!


	7. Ah, the Beauty of Lava

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: Here's the new chapter, folk! Read it, enjoy it, and eat some fried chicken! Oh yeah, and I forgot to reply to 2 guests that reviewed last time, and Rangle, who I can't PM due to certain circumstances so here you go.

Guest 1:Yes, Kaiza will be the same age as Naruto.

Guest 2: Thank you so much! I hope you continue reading and enjoying the story!

Rangle: There is no butt fetish….That's honestly pretty creepy, but I just want folk to know that there won't be any "supergod beats everyone" type thing. It gets boring when no one can beat the main character to a pulp, don't ya agree?

Now that that's finished, NOW you can read the story!

XXXXX

 _Three years later…_

As the bell rang, I sat down next to Chojuro in the place we've been sitting since the beginning of our Academy tenure.

"Alright!" Shoru-sensei said as we took our seats. "It's time to take your unit test!" he announced, making me sigh in annoyance. "After you finish the writing portion, we will take the ninjutsu portion of the test. That will be all," he finished as he passed the tests out face-down in front of all of us. "Now, you may begin. You have 45 minutes."

Writing my name on my paper, I looked at the questions and felt somewhat better.

'What is the name of our villages' signature jutsu?' I read metally before writing down "Hidden Mist Jutsu." 'Okay, that wasn't bad...Number 2: What could the fourth Mizukage do?' Thinking for a second, it suddenly hit me when thinking about the being inside my head. 'Coral jutsu!' I mentally exclaimed, writing it down on my paper.

" **Keep it down, you're interrupting my nap,** " a certain voice said in my head.

'Hey, you're always sleeping. Stretch your legs a bit,' I responded back. 'Especially since you can swim anywhere now.'

" **That means nothing. I still need my sleep.** " Snorting quietly, I answered number 4 before going back to the conversation.

'Alright then, sleepy head, what are we gonna do after last week, then? Might as well ask while you're awake for once,' I cheekily asked while writing in number 6.

" **You've just about finished the one-tail cloak, so we have to move on to the two-tail cloak,** " the turtle explained. " **We may be able to move on to the three-tail cloak, but we won't be able to do much more than that since your body won't be physically ready for another year or two.** "

'Alright. Now, can you help me answer this last question?' I asked, not remembering the last question.

" **...Is that my problem?** "

'Yes, it is, you lazy turtle. I know you can see what I see so help, please.' The tailed beast grumbled in response before actually looking at the question.

" **The Uzumaki were close relatives with the Senju, and the first Hokage was known for his Wood Style while the Uzumaki were known for their crafty sealing jutsu and their kenjutsu, albeit to a lesser extent** ," he explained.

'Thank you!' I said perked up after writing down what he told me. 'By the way, I never asked you about the Uzumaki. What were they like?' I asked, turning my paper over and retreating completely into my mindscape.

" **They had red hair, and a fiery personality that matches it perfectly. They were some crazy humans, if that word isn't too tame for how insane they really were.** "

'Where'd they go?'

" **Wiped out in a war. Since humans here and in other places feared them, they collectively attacked the Hidden Eddy village and destroyed it,** " he revealed.

'How do you remember all this?' I interrogated. I received a somewhat amused snort.

" **I'm an ancient being of chakra. It's not hard to remember if you have a brain,** " he poked, making my eye twitch as I laid down on a bed of seaweed. " **Besides, I was unfortunately in the war.** "

'Really, what did you do?'

" **Before getting sealed into Yagura, Kiri sealed me into some Konoha human,** " he revealed, making my eyes go wide. " **Their plan was to make me go berserk right inside the heart of the village, and destroy them from the inside.** "

'Woah...that's messed up,' I muttered. 'And then what?'

" **They killed the girl before I could get released, and I had to go through reformation, which is a severely irritating pain.** "

'What's reformation?'

" **It's when a tailed beast host is killed, we technically 'die' as well, but after a little while, depending on the number of tails and the severity of the death, we reform.** "

'How long did it take you?'

" **Relatively short. Apparently, about 11 months.** **Kiri still took me within a few weeks and sealed me in Yagura, and...well, I told you that story already.** "

Before we could continue our conversation, an alarm rang out before being stopped by Shoru-sensei. "Alright! Now we're going outside for the jutsu portion."

" **Good, now I can get some sleep,** " a certain someone said.

'Hey, I'm not that bad, am I?' I joked, getting up and going outside with Chojuro.

" **You're decent,** " he judged, which I smiled at.

'Thanks, Isobu,' I replied, using his real name. All I got in response was a grunt, but I knew it was mostly good-natured.

Since Isobu and I met, we've gotten along really far. At first, he didn't trust me at all, and would barely talk to me. Slowly but surely, I worked him up to trusting me and now we're like best friends, even though he's still incredibly lazy and always sleeps.

I doubt I can change that…

Kaa-chan was initially against me talking to him, but after some convincing, she said it would probably be beneficial if I worked with my tenant instead of being at odds with each other all the time. She doesn't know that Isobu isn't bound by the seal anymore yet, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

"Listen up!" Shoru-sensei shouted, using the voice jutsu to make it louder. "Now, when I call your name, you will come up and use the _Hidden Mist Jutsu_ as well as a substitution, a water clone, and then one other jutsu that you wish." Going from the list, he called us in alphabetical order, and they went over into the field while the rest of us watched them.

Some of the other kids in our class really knew their stuff. One of them used a _Fireball Jutsu_ , another used a lightning jutsu, and others simply used a henge or something like that. "Kirishi Chojuro!"

"Good luck!" I told my friend before he came up to the spotlight. First, he made hand signs before quietly saying _Hidden Mist Jutsu_. The mist came all around us and lowered the visibility to where it was hard to see classmates that weren't right next to me. While the mist died down, Chojuro made a water clone.

When visibility returned to normal, the clone through a kunai at the original, only for him to be replaced by a log before stabbing the clone in the gut, making it revert to water. Shoru-sensei nodded in approval at the way he showed that he knew both jutsu while writing down the score. "Now, do one jutsu of your choosing."

Nodding, Chojuro started to do hand signs of a jutsu that Kaa-chan taught us a long time ago. " _Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu_!" The bullets flew across the training ground and pierced the training dummy.

"Good," Sensei complimented before calling the next name. "Kazami Makaru!"

As Chojuro came back next to me, Makaru left with his head up high and mighty, making me laugh. Makaru always had a bit of an ego, and always challenged me to crazy stuff, thinking he was better than me.

I usually ignored it, but sometimes I had to accept a challenge to keep him quiet for a week or two. They were fun practice, too.

"You did good, Chojuro," I told him, giving him a smile.

"Thank you," he returned, nodding while we both returned our attention to Makaru doing his special jutsu.

" _Water Style: Water Whip Jutsu_!" he said, a long whip of water forming in his hand that he then used to lash the training dummy, leaving quite a deep scar on it. Smirking, he walked back over to me. "Try and top that, Kaiza," he said smugly, causing me to roll my eyes in amusement.

"I'll try," was all I said. Looking at the other kids, I waited until Sensei called my name.

"Terumi Kaiza!" Looking at Makaru for a second, I gave him a little wink before I went up. "Start with the _Hidden Mist Jutsu_." Nodding at his command, I did the hand signs before a mist started to come around us. Continuing the mist, I didn't stop until I could barely see my feet.

"Good, now release it." Doing what he said, I waited until the mist completely disappeared before I made a water clone. Doing the same as Chojuro, it threw a kunai at me, which I used to substitute before knocking the clone on the ground, breaking it back into water.

"Do your final jutsu." Because I felt like showing Makaru up, I made a few handsigns before calling out one of my _oh so_ favorite jutsu.

" _Lava Style: Melting Apparition_!" I thought as I spat out a blanket of lava at the training dummy. When the lava hit the dummy, it slowly melted until the only thing left was a smouldering piece of wood that was hardly recognizable. Walking back, I gave a large smile at Maraku when I returned, taking great satisfaction when he huffed and rolled his eyes at me.

"Show-off," he muttered, making me laugh before Chojuro lightly touched my shoulder.

"You have a little…" he told me, pointing at his lips. Looking down, I saw that there was still a little "lava drool" as Kaa-chan called it going down my face.

"Thank you, Chojuro," I said as I flicked the lava off my face, landing next to another kid's foot, making her jump up at the sudden heat. "Oh, I'm sorr-"

"Aw, shut it," the voice scathingly said to me. Looking up, I saw it to be Saruka who glared at me before the teacher called her name.

"What's wrong with her?" Chojuro quietly asked, watching her do her exam. In response, I simply held up three fingers, since Chojuro, as well as a few other classmates, knew I was the three-tails jinchuriki.

Grimacing, he nodded as we both saw her do her exam. She finished the other parts and was about to do her own personal jutsu of choice. Before she started, she gave me a glare as she made her hand signs.

" _Lightning Style: Thundershock Jutsu_!" she said, making her hand sparkle with lightning chakra. She then pointed her pointer finger at the dummy….while her thumb pointed straight at me. Before I could say anything, she let the jutsu go, the small bolt of lightning coming straight for me. Thinking quickly, I made hand signs and blew out a miniature lava wall, stopping the bolts in their tracks.

"Hey, watch it!" I yowled at her, while taking off my sandal and putting out the lava with my foot.

"It was a mistake. I don't have complete control of my technique yet," she explained, despite having a small smirk on her face.

"Whatever the case may be, it's not time to hurt people just yet," Shoru-Sensei admonished, before turning to all of us. "Alright, back inside. It's just about dismissal time." Ready to leave for the weekend, we hurriedly returned to the classroom and packed our things in anticipation for the final bell of the week.

"What are you doing after school today, Kaiza?" Chojuro asked as we sat down in wait for dismissal.

"I'm going to do some training with the three-tails before Kaa-chan comes back," I told him, since Isobu told me not to tell anyone else his name. Apparently, it was a really important part of him. Chojuro nodded in response. "What are you doing?" I turned.

"Some more Kenjutsu training, and maybe I can come over tomorrow," he told me, before he backtracked over what I said. "Where's Mizukage-sama?"

"She went on a treaty mission to Kumo. She's trying to bring us out of seclusion, or something like that." Chojuro nodded at my words and started to continue the conversation before the bell rang. Getting up, we started to walk out the room and soon enough, exited the Academy.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Chojuro!" I told him as we split, him going to the right while I remained walking in a straight line. Soon enough, I returned home and used my keys to open the door. Making sure to close it behind me, I began to walk upstairs to my room before being stopped by a meow. Turning around, I saw Twilight purring as she rubbed my leg.

"Aww, hey there, little Twilight," I cooed, crouching down so I could pick her up and scratch behind her ear. Reaching my room, I opened it and momentarily put the cat on the bed so I could take off my bookbag and put it in the corner before picking up Twilight again. "Wanna go to our secret spot?" I asked gently, her eyes telling that she was excited.

Giving a small laugh, I left the house and instead of going through the village, I went through the training ground and continued to walk until I arrived at an enormous river bank. With Twilight safe and secure, I jumped across the river before continuing my pace and stopping at a place where the mist suddenly got really thick. Jumping down, I landed on one knee, letting Twilight out of my arms as we reached our destination.

It was a lush cove, that had a river leading to a small lake where some fish lived, which is why I brought Twilight. It was almost completely surrounded by stone, save for the top, which is the only way in or out besides following the river underwater.

The best part, though, was that it was a secluded spot where no one could feel Isobu's chakra. 'Alright, you lazy turtle. We're here,' I said in my head.

" **You couldn't wait until Saturday?** " the turtle grumbled, obviously waking up from yet another nap.

'No, you lazy turtle. Kaa-chan gets back today, and she doesn't know about everything yet,' I scolded, only to receive an annoyed grunt from the tailed beast.

" **Why didn't you tell her, then?** " he said in his "know-it-all" tone, causing me to grow a tick mark on my head.

'YOU TOLD ME NOT TO TELL HER!' I mentally screamed. I felt a shift go on as Isobu moved, seemingly coming to a realization that this was true.

" **...Whoops. Aw well, I guess we just need to train now and forget the past,** " he dodged, making my eye twitch. " **Now, go in your one-tailed form,** " he told me. Obeying his order, I calmly stood while a red cloak surrounded me, taking on my form but with one tail sticking out from behind me. " **Now, try to get the second tail of chakra out. Remember to start slow, since my chakra is divided into larger proportions,** " he coached.

Feeling the chakra, I tried really hard to bring it out, and eventually it started to get a bit overwhelming. Refusing to quit, I gave it everything I had, and the chakra started to burst a little bit.

" **Kid, I said take it slow,** " the usually lazy turtle reprimanded as I lightly panted. " **You have to ease your way up with every tail. Try to force it, and all the chakra will do is fight back harder until you go berserk and scare away all the fish.** "

"...Gotcha," I said out loud, rolling my eyes at the thought of scaring away the fish. The going berserk part though was more than enough to straighten me out, since I didn't want to ever lose control. Taking a deep breath, I entered the one-tail cloak again, this time slowly extracting more of Isobu's chakra. I saw better results this time, and started to force the chakra, though much more gently than the first time. I smiled when I saw that the second tail sprouted next to the first.

"This was much easier than the first tail, ya know," I commented.

" **Of course it was, you didn't have any idea of what you were doing the first time,** " that lazy turtle said matter-of-factly. " **Also, considering that you trained yourself up to a whole three hours with the one tailed form, adding another tail would be simple considering how used to my chakra you have gotten.** "

"Nice, so what next?"

" **Hm.….I could teach you a water jutsu that would really come in handy...But I need to take a nap,** " he goaded, making me get irritated.

'ARE YOU KIDD-'

" **Yes, yes, I was. Stop screaming so I can teach it to you….Troublesome kid,** " he muttered, putting another tick mark on my forehead.

'I'm gonna use my lava jutsu on you again…' I threatened, knowing that the three-tailed turtle hated lava.

" **No need to do that. So what I'm about to teach is you is a weaker version of a move that we tailed beast know.** "

"Cool! So how does it go?" I asked excitedly.

" **Not yet. First, we have to get you comfortable with your two-tailed form, then at least an hour with your three-tailed form before you can learn it. Now, practice properly enhancing your water jutsu.** "

Quickly deflating, I perked up again when I imagined hitting Isobu with a large water jutsu, which gave me more than enough inspiration to continue on. Doing some hand seals, I smirked as I saw Isobu right in front of me. " _Water Style:_ _Dragon Bite Jutsu_!" I yowled, the water in the lake forming three absolutely huge dragons, each standing about 40 feet tall. The three dragons yowled as they circled around me before attacking the stone wall I imagined was Isobu.

The amazement was huge on my face as I saw the results; the wall had a very large hole in it, with a hole of about 14 feet in diameter. Giving a cackling laugh, I saw the image of Isobu sweat-dropping since he knew I was thinking of him as a target.

" **You...need help,** " he told me slowly, before yawning. " **I'm going to take a small nap. Keep firing jutsus of varying degrees until you burn out of my chakra. It'd probably be good to fight against some of your water clones to help with the effort.** "

Nodding, I did the hand signs and called " _Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu_!" About 500 clones appeared in the small clearing, taking up most of the space and with a few forced to be standing on the water. "Alright, let's have some _fun_ ," I said somewhat maliciously, clearly making them uncomfortable even as they attacked me. Doing a bit more hand signs, I gave them a nice dosage of KI, which could probably immobilize most chunin and a few jonin considering it was mixed with Isobu's chakra.

" _Lava Style: Lava Wave Jutsu_!" I thought, blowing out a sea of lava at my clones. To my sadistic satisfaction, the lava spread over about 60 feet, swamping all of my clones and leaving a bunch of steam left in the process.

Jumping away from the melting pot of clones, I did a quick analysis. Apparently, the cloak didn't have any drawbacks from what I've seen. It also gave me a little more speed, and obviously an extra punch. " _Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu_!" I said again, making about 300 more clones. This time, I didn't do anything until the clones started to gang up on me. Punching a clone, it got sent back pretty far before dispelling. Taking out my sword, I fought the other clones in a whirlwind of blade slashes.

Jumping back after a while, I saw that about 50 clones still remained. 'Isobu, can you help me with that cool jutsu I talked to you about?' I asked, while the rest started to advance again.

" **Alright, remember to compress your chakra, and make it spike in certain places in certain areas while keeping a covered general area** ," he advised. Nodding, I did the hand signs, and called out a jutsu that was in Isobu's honor, so to speak.

" _Water Style: Shell Spike Jutsu_!" A torrent of water surrounded me, before I released it exactly like Isobu said. A shell of water expanded around me while spikes shot out of the shield, destroying the unsuspecting clones and leaving a completely empty field. Satisfied, I dropped the jutsu and the cloak. 'How long was that?'

" **You held the cloak for about 20 minutes** ," the turtle summarized. " **Not too shabby, for your first time**." In response, I just chuckled and scratched my head.

"Twilight!" I called suddenly. She jumped out of a small crack, running into my arms. "Are you alright? I hope you weren't scared," I said, rubbing her fur. "Okay, let's go on back home before someone notices someth-"

"Hello, my little Kame-kun," a feminine voice I knew very well greeted. "Would you like to explain what I just saw?"

'...Aw crap/ **Aw crap** ," both Isobu and I thought at the same time.

XXXXX

Awaiting my trial of death, I sat down in the living room while Kaa-chan sat there calmly, her hands knotted together as she gave me a long hard stare. "How long has this been going on?" she asked, Ao standing at her right side.

"About...2 years?" I answered quietly, silently wanting Twilight to be with me right now. Fortunately, my beautiful cat came stalking over to us and jumped in my lap, making me feeling much better despite my interrogation.

"Has...the Three-tails tried anything?" she continued.

"Nope!" I answered. "He's really friendly, lazy too." At that, the two adults shared a look with each other.

"Can you show me what you did in the cove?" She questioned, narrowing her eyes slightly. Nodding, I sat there quietly as the red chakra surrounded me, forming now two tails behind me. "How…"

"He helps me, Kaa-chan!" I defended. "He's not a killer demon…" I said, quieting down after my outburst.

"How can we be sure?" she asked, her eyes full of worry.

" **Hey, kid. Tell her to fist bump you** ," a voice said in my head. Confused, I didn't know what he was trying to get to, but I listened anyway.

"Kaa-chan, can you give me a fist bump?" I asked, taking out my fist. For a moment, she looked at me like I had two heads, but eventually complied. As soon as our fists connected, I felt myself being pulled into my mindscape.

Looking around, I quickly found Kaa-chan looking around wildly, wondering what was going on. "Over here!" I called. She ran over to me as a certain someone started to rise out of the ocean.

" **Greetings, Mizukage** ," Isobu said, though said Mizukage was still distrustful, slowly coming in front of me.

"Hello...Three-tails," she curtly replied. "What do you want with Kaiza?" she interrogated.

" **I wanted nothing to do with him, at first** ," he started, making Kaa-chan stiffen as I came out from behind her. " **That kid is something special though, I guess you could say...I warmed up to him**." Saying Kaa-chan was surprised would be the understatement of the century, especially when I jumped on top of Isobu's head and gave her a smile.

"I told ya so!"

" **He is still loud…** "

"HEY!" I yowled even louder, proving his point. "I'm so gonna spit lava at you!" I threatened.

" **Why do you love using that lava at me? It irritates my shell and makes it harder to nap** ," he complained, completely blowing Kaa-chan away, as we saw when she stood there with a gobsmacked expression.

"Isobu….I think we broke her…"

" **Looks like it….I'm gonna take a nap** ," the lazy turtle decided. " **I'll talk to you later** ," he said before retreating back into the ocean as Kaa-chan and I exited my mindscape.

XXXXX

A/N: That's it! I have to go, so there's just gonna be ONE more timeskip! Hope you enjoyed, follow review fave all that good stuff, and bye bye!

Blizzard, off to school!


	8. Graduation Day!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: Hey there! Enjoy this next chapter, and make sure you keep your grape juice close by!

 _Two years later…_

'It's finally the day! I'm gonna become a shinobi!' I thought to myself as I woke up. Jumping out of bed, I looked outside of my window, and dampened slightly when I saw that the sun wouldn't be up for another hour or two. Looking back at the clock, I got even more irritated when I saw it was only 4:43. Huffing, I got out some clothes and went to take a shower.

Coming out of the shower, I put on my clothes, which consisted of a short sleeved shirt that sported a dolphin on the front along with long blue shinobi pants. Going downstairs for breakfast, I was greeted with the sight of Kaa-chan walking into the house right before I went into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Kaa-chan!" I greeted brightly, giggling slightly when I saw her sigh.

"How can you get ready at this deathly hour?" she muttered.

"I'm gonna be a shinobi. I have to be ready anytime!" I said, giving her a smile. Rolling her eyes, she simply gave me a kiss on my forehead. I had grown over the years, almost getting taller than Kaa-chan.

"Make sure that you have everything ready for your exam, too," she advised. "You know that you have to take this seriously; never be overconfident."

"Hai," I returned, giving her a look of determination. "Now, come on. I'll make breakfast!" I said, walking to the kitchen.

"My, not even a shinobi yet and you're giving _me_ commands?" she jokingly replied, taking a seat at the table anyway.

"No offense, Kaa-chan, but the food is much better when I-"

"Kaiza-kun…." she interrupted in a falsely-sweet voice. "How many D-rank missions do I have at the office, I wonder?" she loudly questioned, making me gulp.

"Did you say something?" I said as I put the eggs on and got the bacon out the freezer.

"I'm not sure; Do you want to help me?" she continued. I could _feel_ the sense of victory in her tone. Sighing, I made sure that I would get her back sometime soon as I finished preparing the breakfast.

"Here you go!" I said, giving Kaa-chan her plate as I went back to the kitchen to get mine. Before I could leave the kitchen again, however, a meow grabbed my attention. Looking down, I saw Twilight, now grown almost to my knee, giving me a pleading as I traced her gaze back to my plate. "Heh, you want some food, huh, Twilight?" I asked rhetorically, putting my breakfast down for a second. "Give me one second," I told her, going into the refrigerator and taking out a raw fish and giving it to her. Purring happily, she quickly took the fish and retreated to her favorite little spot, which happened to be a little plot of trees on the training ground.

With that call of order finished, I grabbed my food again and went to eat with Kaa-chan. "So, what is your exam going to look like?" Kaa-chan asked me as we ate.

"A written test, genjutsu portion, tai/kenjutsu portion, ninjutsu portion, a weapons portion and that's it," I quickly listed, only stopping to sip on some orange juice.

"Did you study?" she continued, telling me that she didn't worry too much about the ninja skill portions of the test as much.

"Yup!" I nodded. "I'll be good and ready to go." 'You will, too, Isobu,' I thought silently in my head.

" **Let me take my nap in peace,** " he replied drowsily, heading straight back to sleep, forcing me to stifle a laugh. He had three hours before showtime anyway. Finishing breakfast, I looked at the clock to see that it was only 5:56, we still had a long way to go.

"You still have quite a while," Kaa-chan said, noticing me looking at the clock. "Remember what a ninja's greatest weapon is?"

"Deception," I answered immediately, cracking a smile as I returned from the kitchen.

"Exactly," she returned, before I suddenly got a chill up my spine before the Kaa-chan in front of me turned to water. Grabbing a kunai out of my pocket at lightning speed, I pointed it behind me without looking while a shrimp-like tail sprouted from my backside and wrapped around a piece of flesh. Looking back, I turned to see Kaa-chan holding a kunai a few inches from my head, stopped by the tail holding back her arm and my kunai at her stomach. "Excellent! You can handle borderline jonin-level stealth," she complimented while the tail retreated into my backside and I got up.

"I have the magic chills," I joked. "Now I just need to make sure I don't get a cold." Kaa-chan rolled her eyes before asking me more questions. "So what are you and the Three-tails doing?" she asked, as Isobu told me to keep his name a closely guarded secret. Apparently, a tailed beast's name meant a lot to them.

"Well, we're just about done with the version two, so mostly partial transformations and working up to the complete transformation," I told her. She nodded, somewhat apprehensively I noticed. "Don't worry, I'll train for that outside the village," I eased.

"I'll watch you too, and Ao, just to make sure. While I can see now the turtle means no harm, I can never be too safe, especially with my little kame-kun," she explained, ruffling my hair and slightly irritating me.

"I'm not little!" I indignantly shouted, making her laugh. "Besides, I'm about to become an adult!" I continued, mentioning my shinobi test, making her raise an eyebrow.

"An adult, huh? Seems like yesterday you were complaining about climbing trees…" she muttered, a nostalgic look creeping into her eye. The time really did fly past, but we still had a lot of fun and managed to form an unbreakable bond that I'll love forever.

After a while, things were getting too sappy for my taste. "I also got way stronger, too," I said. "After a while, I'll be an S rank ninja like you!" It wasn't wrong; I could do a lot more than I used to, and Kaa-chan rated me as a chunin based on everything I could do without Isobu's chakra, which I usually only used for a last resort or when things got a little edgy. I didn't want to depend on his chakra like a crutch, especially after I learned that some people knew how to shut it down, which only added fuel to that fire.

"You probably will be," she agreed, before yawning. "Well, I guess I'll leave you to your devices for now. I'll walk with you to the Academy, and then I have to check on some things." Nodding, I went back to my room to get everything ready for the exam. Closing the door, I made sure all my ninja supplies were in order.

"Kunai? Check. Shuriken? Check. Sword? Check. Explosive tags?" I stopped, looking at them before putting them back. "Nah, too much." This continued for about an hour before I made sure completely that I didn't forget a thing. Sure that I had every base covered, I looked at the clock again to see 6:34 on the clock. 'Ugh, why can't time go any faster?' I complained as I looked at the clock. "Wait a second…" I said, before I paused, before putting my hands in a ram seal. "Kai!" I yelled, the surroundings breaking away to see that the clock actually said 6:59 and ticking. Conveniently right as I dispelled it, I heard a knock on the door followed by a "Kaiza, let's go."

Coming out, I gave Kaa-chan a dirty look as we walked down the stairs. "Deceptive, aren't ya?" I muttered, knowing that she smiled as she opened the door for us to begin walking to the Academy. Not saying much, we just walked along the city, folks giving us various greetings. The looks got a lot better since a few years ago, though there were still a select few people that really had problems with me for whatever reason.

Arriving at the Academy, we saw Chojuro as we came around the corner. Running forward, I stopped when I got to him. "Hey Chojuro!"

"Hi, Kaiza," he returned. "Are y-you ready?" he asked somewhat shakily.

"Hai," I answered. "Are you alright?" I asked, seeing how he was shaking a bit.

"Yeah, just a bit nervous," he admitted, scratching his head before a voice came from behind me.

"Hello Chojuro," Kaa-chan greeted, which Chojuro returned. "The two of you don't want to be late, do you? I don't give out special promotions for Academy students," she joked. Nodding, we said goodbye before walking into the building and sitting down in our seats when we entered the class.

"So, how do you think the written part is going to be?" Chojuro asked me, twiddling his fingers in slight nervousness.

"I hope they aren't too bad," I responded, knowing that I wasn't the best at written tests. My friend only nodded as we fell into a somewhat comfortable silence, me doodling on the desk with a pencil and him looking around periodically as the others entered the room. A little while later, the bell rung and Shoru-sensei stood up with a stack of papers.

"Alright, maggots!" he started, "Today is the day of exams. To review the day once again, we will start with the written exam. When you finish, we will do the ninjutsu, taijutsu/kenjutsu, genjutsu and accuracy part of the exams while the written tests are graded. In order to pass, you must get a cumulative score of 75 or higher. For the spars, you will be judged on your performance and the victors will get extra credit to their scores." After the explanation, Shoru-sensei began to pass out the test face-down, making sure that no one got a head start.

"...Begin!" he said when he finished passing out the paper. Turning it over, I looked at the test crazy when I saw the content. It only got worse when I saw that there were 88 questions.

"...Kill me now," I muttered as I began to work on number 1. A few seconds later, I moved my head out the way as a kunai darted towards me. Wondering what was going on, I looked at Shoru-sensei as if he grew two heads.

"Be careful what you ask for," he said matter-of-factly, making me huff. Ignoring my crazy sensei, I focused on the test, calmly finishing one question after another. After a really boring time, I got to the end and enjoyed the fact that I finished the worst part of the Academy exams with only minor assistance from Isobu.

With a good mood, I laid back in my chair, before I got another bad sense. Snapping in defense mode, I stopped when a kunai plunged into my desk right next to my paper and exactly where my foot was. Giving another dirty look to Shoru-sensei, I looked on as he gave me one of those smartass smiles.

"Did I say you could kick back and relax?" he challenged, irritating me even more. Without a word, I grabbed the kunai and put it next to my mouth. Letting some lava fall out, I let the kunai melt for a second before dropping it on the floor next to my chair as it continued to smolder into ashes.

Seeing his smile drop, I gained one while I went back to lounging after the test. After a couple minutes, I could feel myself dozing off before an alarm blared.

"Alright, maggots! Pencils down!" Shoru-sensei yelled. Knowing from our years with him that he had mental issues, every kid in the class immediately followed the order. Waiting silently, we watched as Shoru-sensei and Oruko-sensei gathered the papers. When they got everything, Shoru-sensei gave his share of the stack to Oruko-sensei, who returned to his desk and began working.

"Follow me outside for the next portions of the exams," he started, walking to the training grounds. Following him, we soon found ourselves outside in a large clump in front of our sensei. "First, we will do the weapons portion of the exam. The dummies have targets on them, and you will use the 10 kunai and shuriken to attack the dummies," he briefly summarized. "Ariko Akiza, you're first."

The weapons portion proved to be rather boring as mostly everyone did above average on that portion of the quiz. No one failed, although a few kids came close to doing that. After that uneventful part, Shoru separated us into pairs for the taijutsu portion of the test.

"Terumi Kaiza, you will be paired with...Jitatsu Korua," he announced, and I looked over to the kid he called me against. Korua was a pretty bulky kid, and he also did pretty well in taijutsu spars, although his Genjutsu was average and his Ninjutsu was subpar at best. Walking over to the boy, I gave him a slight smile as Shoru-sensei began calling out pairs to come spar.

"Good luck!" I said. In response, he only nodded, not taking his eyes off the fights. Sighing, I just followed his eyes to the fights before we got called to do the spar.

"Terumi, Jitatsu, you're up!" Going forward, we stopped right in front of Sensei before turning around to face each other. We both did a bow before waiting as Shoru-sensei glanced at the both of us. "...Begin!" he said before jumping back.

Immediately, Korua rushed at me with his fists raised and ready to punch. Narrowing my eyes, I jumped over him while attempting a kick right to the side of his head. Grabbing my foot, he tried to throw me into the ground, which would definitely hurt. Swerving around, I used my other leg to attack him, forcing him to let me go in order to dodge.

Not giving any reprieve, I jumped right at him with a haymaker that he blocked, although not without being pushed back an inch or three. Narrowing my eyes, I threw my leg up, successfully smashing the back of his head. Korua went to the ground, narrowly stopping himself from collision by stretching out his arms.

Seeing the golden opportunity, I quickly slammed my foot on his back, forcing him down on the ground.

"Enough!" Shoru-sensei shouted. Taking my foot off him, I offered him a hand, which he took rather hesitantly. "Next!" he shouted, since there was only one group left after us.

"You did great, Kaiza!" Chojuro said as I walked over to him.

"Eh….thanks," I replied sheepishly, not really prepared for all the praise. "You handled your fight really well, too."

"I didn't have to go up against someone like Korua." I nodded at that; Korua was something different.

"I think you'd be able to handle him," I reassured. Chojuro simply nodded in reply, but didn't say any more words as the last fight started to wrap up.

"Alright, maggots!" Shoru-sensei barked when the last two fighters ended their spar. "Now we're going to finish up the ninjutsu and genjutsu portions of the test. For the former, the requirements will be doing the Hidden Mist Jutsu, Substitution, any advanced clone, Transformation, an offensive water jutsu, and any other one ninjutsu of your choice."

Waiting again, I simply stared at the other kids taking their exam while wondering what I'd do. Definitely a water clone for sure….Probably the water bullet for the other water jutsu, and as for the last one….Makes sense.

"Terumi!" I heard, snapping me from my train of thought. "Get up here!" Sighing with a shake of my head, I walked front and center, stopping right in front of Shoru-sensei. "You know the drill. Get going."

Not doing a single thing, I just stood there as mist started to flow from everywhere, going to only an inch of visibility in a matter of seconds. 'I really have to thank Kaa-chan and Isobu for that,' I thought while I looked at the mist impressively.

" **You're welcome,** " I heard out of nowhere, making me chuckle slightly. One second later, I heard a whizz cut through the air. Out of reflex, I caught the kunai, only to find out that it had an explosive tag of all things on it. Cursing mentally, I substituted to get the heck away from that thing.

Moving about 6 feet over, I dispersed the mist to see a log blown to pieces with a kunai piercing the ground. Looking at Shoru-sensei with a "What the heck?" face, he just scoffed.

"You don't laugh in the middle of an assassination technique. Now, do your clone." Nodding, I did the hand seals for a water clone, using the vanishing mist in order to create two of them. Sensei took notes on his clipboard, before looking up again. "Dispel them and do a transformation."

Nodding again, I let both clones revert back to water before doing the hand signs for a transformation. "Are you doing your job, Shoru-san?" I said, imitating my Kaa-chan's voice and giving Sensei a hard time.

"Let's see if an F next to your name shows my hard work," he jabbed back, making me frown.

"I'll melt you," I returned, releasing the transformation in the middle of the sentence. In response, he rolled his eyes and looked back at his clipboard. "Do your water jutsu and then any other one ninjutsu of your choice."

Nodding my head in the affirmative yet again, I made the hand sign for the water jutsu. " _Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu_!" I called, letting bullets of water fly from my mouth, denting the target in many places in piercing it in others. Afterwards, I did an extra set of hand signs before calling out a jutsu I oh so loved. " _Lava Style: Melting Apparition_!" A wave of lava spat out from my mouth this time, drenching the target in lava and leaving a smoldering mess, although it was still standing, interestingly enough.

"We made it fire resistant, since you like to melt everything," Shoru explained, reading my mind. "Now, get."

"Okay." With that, I left again to the mass of the classroom as the last one, Saruka, walked forward. While we passed each other, she gave me a rather malicious glint in her eye. Disaffected, I let my eye turn completely pink with a yellow iris for a second, causing hers to go wide before her expression returned to disdain.

Rolling my eyes, I stood next to Chojuro, who had a quixotic look on his face. "What was that about?"

"I don't know, and I really don't care," I replied, coming off a little more harshly than in my head. It showed, as Chojuro almost flinched back in surprise at my sudden cold demeanor. He then put a hand on my shoulder. "Calm down," he told me.

"I am calm," I shot back.

"Your calm is a different calm. You have to be _calm_ ," he intensified, making me laugh.

"You calling me crazy?" I joked.

"Yup." We both shared a snicker at that blunt response.

"Alright!" Shoru yelled once again. "Now we're doing genjutsu. For this, you will have to perform at least two genjutsu of your choice. After we finish this, we're going back to the classroom to tally your scores and see who becomes a ninja."

For the last time of the day, I watched in anticipation and boredom for my turn to come so that we could finally finish this and get out of this hellish place.

…...Just kidding, the Academy has been pretty good to me...Sometimes.

We'll go down memory lane later.

"Terumi!" I heard my name being called. Happy that this was the last test portion of the day, I came up front with a little more pep in my step. "Do your first genjutsu. Oruko will be your target, and he will be your grader, as well."

Nodding, I used the hand signs for one of the few genjutsu that I knew. " _Demonic Illusion: Shell Prison_." Oruko-sensei found himself trapped, continuously getting crushed by two turtle shells that kept clamping down on his sides. Seeing that he began to gasp, I let go of it quickly as to prevent any trauma.

"...That was something else," he said quietly, writing down notes on his own separate clipboard. "Now...Can you do your second genjutsu?"

"Second...uh…." I stumbled. I might've been able to use genjutsu, but I hadn't used any in so long that I forgot all except one.

'Isobu, HELP!' I mentally yowled.

" **Tch...fine...Close your eyes and we'll do the KI thingy.** "

"Terum-"

"I got it!" I yowled, cutting Shoru-sensei off. Closing my eyes, I let a small bit of Isobu's chakra out, and when I opened my eyes, the KI spread everywhere, completely changing the atmosphere to one of complete danger and bloodlust seemingly unparalleled.

The reaction was immediate. Shoru-sensei's eyes hardened, and Oruko-sensei was visibly shaking, although he tried to minimize it as much as possible. However, the class itself was much worse off.

Half of the class looked like they just saw a serial killer murder their family. Their eyes were wide and nobody moved a muscle, as if frozen with fear. Chojuro was the exception, even though he looked like he wanted to spill his guts.

"You can stop now!" Shoru-sensei said, a little louder than he usually is. Stopping it instantly, I looked behind me to see the class sighing with relief, others still shaking or shuddering or whatever. They all stared at me with a look of amazement.

"Ehh…...Surprise?" I slowly said, scratching my head.

"...Go to the classroom," Shoru-sensei deadpanned. Nodding, I casually walked by everyone to the classroom, although only like three other kids followed me, Chojuro included.

"So…..What the heck was that?" he asked, looking at me like I went crazy. "You never used that genjutsu before…"

"Well, um…" I started, before I noticed that other kids started to file in the room. Leaning in, I whispered to Chojuro, "It wasn't a genjutsu." His eyes naturally went wide, but before he could yell, I quickly held up three fingers, and his expression became much more knowing.

"Why'd you do it?" he then asked when everyone else started to file into the room.

"I...kinda forgot all the other ones," I sheepishly explained, laughing while he went into a deadpan. "At least I passed it!"

"...Sure…." he drawled out, giving me a side-eye as Shoru-sensei went back to the front of the class.

"Alright, maggots! We're done for the day! Sit here until the lunch bell rings, and then when you come back, we'll know who deserves to become a ninja." Following the announcement, the room broke out into clamor, everyone forming small groups of friends to talk to while waiting on the bell to ring. With everyone else talking to each other, Chojuro and I had followed suit and started our own conversation.

"So, how do you think ya did on the test?" I asked him. "That thing was stupid."

"Well, you have a hard time with anything written," he chuckled, even moreso when I shot him a dirty look. "But it wasn't that bad. Most of the stuff was pretty easy to remember from the reviews."

"Yup…" I said quietly, leading Chojuro to laugh.

"Oh yeah, the reviews you used a clone to skip while you went "secret training," he snarkily explained, a sly grin coming to his face.

"At least….I think I passed."

"Don't worry," he reassured me. "Even if you did bad, your scores on the other parts of the test should help you out. You really did good on the ninja stuff."

"That's one good thing, I guess," I sighed, knowing that the ninja skills were the easiest portions of the exam. "But, you did good like…..with everything."

"Eh…..Maybe," he drawled, a small grin entering his face again.

"Alright, don't get too big-headed," I warned, giving him a joking side-eye.

"Hey, don't say I'm the big-headed one," he defended. "I just used my proper judgment and common sense to see that your statement has very good merit," he wordily said.

"Nu-uh!" I nearly yelled. "Don't you start using those big words. It's just a regular conversation."

"Maybe that's why written tests are hard for you," Shoru-sensei off-handedly said right after I finished my comment. Chojuro couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing, making my face feel even hotter than it was.

Before I could offer a retort, the bell rang, and all I could do was stare at Shoru-sensei's crap-eating grin while everyone else started to file out. "Better luck next time, Terumi. Now get to lunch," he said, victoriously laughing as he turned back to his grading with Oruko-sensei. Huffing, I seriously considered taking drastic action until Chojuro put his hand on my shoulder, basically telling me to cool off.

Rolling my eyes, I turned around and went to get my lunch bag, Chojuro and I following suit with the rest of the class. Going outside, we went to the bench by the fence that we became so familiar with. "So, what do you think the teams are gonna be like?" Chojuro asked, taking a bite out of his bento.

"I dunno," I replied, before having some more ramen that I cooked per a fire jutsu. "I think Kaa-chan will put us on the same team, but I have no idea if we'll have three people."

"Why not?"

"There are only twenty-nine people in the classroom. No one isn't really crappy, so assuming we all pass, it's not gonna be a clean 3 people cut," I explained, actually using my brain for once.

Unfortunately, Chojuro thought the same, and vocalized it as well. "That was some pretty deep thinking, Kaiza."

"Don't mention it," I sarcastically mentioned, rolling my eyes. "So, who do you think our sensei is gonna be?"

"Hmmm…." Chojuro thought. "I don't know. There aren't many Jonin I know of that would be able to deal with us."

"Someone getting big-headed, huh?"

"You know what I meant," he snapped back, annoyed. "Someone has to know really good kenjutsu and water jutsu, and have to be able to keep you…."

"Handled?" I finished, tilting my head.

"N-no, not handled," Chojuro rejected. "I mean...like…..You're a little crazy. Someone has to be able to easily keep up with that craziness."

"...Welp, that sucks." We both shared a laugh at that, then moved to more topics before the bell rang again. Cleaning up, we went back to the classroom and sat down, ready for the final scores.

"Alright, class," Shoru-sensei started when we all sat down. "When I call your name, come get your Kiri headband. "Ariko Akiza….Azako Mizachi…" I tuned out the rest of the names until they called either me or Chojuro. Eventually, they did call Chojuro, and he got a gray headband with the 4 symbols on it. Looking, I thought it was good until I heard a specific name get called.

"Yakuza Saruka." Looking forward, I saw her take a red headband, putting it on before going back to her seat, giving me a glare every step of the way back.

"Umm...Shoru-sensei?" I called. "Where's my headband?"

"Mizukage-sama wanted me to save a special headband for you," he told me, going to his desk and taking out a blue headband. Recognizing the headband, I quickly got up and got the headband from Shoru-sensei. Kaa-chan always loved this headband, and I couldn't believe that she'd give it to me. Going back to my chair, I sat down and stared at the headband.

"Kaiza, why didn't you put it on, yet?" Chojuro asked.

"Because, I'm just...thinking. Besides, I don't know where I want to put it, yet."

"Maybe, on your head."

"No….that's too boring," I rejected, getting a deadpan. "I need…..That's what I can do!" Taking the headband, I put it on my left arm. "Fits, doesn't it?"

"Well…..It does work," Chojuro conceded.

"Alright, maggots!" Shoru-sensei yelled. "Now, you are ninjas, and adults. You fight for Kiri. Team assignments will be given out in a week. Class dismissed."

XXXXX

A/N: And that's it! Excuse me for being late, but I've been going through a thing called life. I just updated a story of mine a few days ago and this one had to come next, but since it's Christmas break over here, I think I'll be able to squeeze out some good stuff over the next couple of days.

With that, I bid thee farewell.

Blizzard, out!


	9. Finally, Genin!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: Welcome to the new chapter of A New World! Now we can FINALLY get into some ninja stuff! :p

 _Six days later…._

" **Get out of the way!** " Isobu yelled in my head as a giant water dragon homed in on me.

"I'm trying!" I yelled out loud as I narrowly dodged it only to see shuriken and water bullets flying right towards me. Grunting in frustration, I quickly made a lava wall to absorb the attacks while diving right for the river.

" _Water style: Shell Spike Jutsu_!" I yowled, staying still as the water of the river formed a cocoon around me. Flaring my chakra, the water burst outward, spikes of water coming from all directions, piercing whatever was in the way. Panting slightly, I stood on alert as I eyed the clearing.

" **Behind you!** " Isobu warned. Almost instantly, three tails sprouted from my back and wrapped around me like a cocoon.

Good thing I did, because the very next contact was _very_ hot, meaning it was either a fire or lava jutsu. Cautious, I unwrapped the cocoon to see no one in the clearing. Looking down, it was confirmed that Kaa-chan blew lava at me.

Not wanting for her to get another step ahead, I didn't miss a beat and searched the clearing for any chakra signatures. Not finding anything, I started to relax for a second before I got a chill up my spine. Reacting as fast as possible, I jumped in the air. It was to no avail; however, as I felt something grab my leg and slam me to the ground. Before I could do anything else, cold steel made contact with the back of my neck.

"You're doing great, Kame-kun," a voice sweetly said behind me.

"Amazing…." I sourly replied, getting up and dusting myself off. "I got beat bad."

"You just graduated, Kaiza-kun," Kaa-chan said. "You can't expect to beat a Kage overnight. Training your way up takes a lot of time and dedication. For someone who's about to be a Genin tomorrow, you did very good and showed nice tactics."

"Speaking of that….Can you tell me who my sensei's gonna be?" I asked, knowing that she made all the ninja squads.

"Mmm….It's gonna have to be a surprise," she dodged, giving me a knowing smile. Huffing, I rolled my eyes and snorted a little bit. "You shouldn't worry too much," she tried to ease. "As long as you continue to work hard, you should excel."

"I know, but….What if my sensei is a…." I left off, not wanting to finish.

"It's alright, Kaiza," she comforted, coming closer. "I made sure you wouldn't be with anyone that will hurt you." Feeling better, I smiled at the woman as Ao entered the training clearing.

"The council wants to meet with you concerning the Academy students," he told her. Instantly, she huffed and rolled her eyes.

"I'll be back soon," Kaa-chan told me. "I have some future mess to straighten out."

"Give 'em everything ya got, Kaa-chan," I told her, a smile on my face.

"Keep training while I'm gone," she continued, ignoring the advice I gave her, though a twinkle of excitement appeared in her eye. With that, both her and Ao _shunshined_ away, leaving me alone in the clearing.

"Well…..what to do now…"

" **You can do the full transformation if ya want,"** a certain someone suggested.

"The first time we tried that, we didn't quite get what we wanted," I reminded, grimacing at the time I tried the full transformation. It ended up very awkward, with me having 3 tails and a crab hand, but the rest of my body looking normal. "Kaa-chan freaked out."

" **Well, you know more now than you knew then, don't you?"** he retorted.

"I guess so…" I conceded.

" **You know how it goes. Give the transformation another go,"** the turtle pushed. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and lowered my head, gathering all the energy I could for the transformation.

Soon, I could feel Isobu's chakra surround me and expand out further. Going along with the energy, I let the flow spread outward and outward until I felt the transformation truly happen. Embracing the feeling, Isobu and I fell further into sync, tails appearing at a huge size and other appendages making themselves known. A few seconds later, everything sat still and I wasn't quite sure what to do.

" **Open your eyes, kid,"** the turtle said. Cautiously, I listened to see that the view was a lot higher up than normal.

"Wait…" I paused, coming to a realization. Looking down, I got excited to see 2 large hands on the ground. Using them, I waddled over to the pond to get a better look.

"Holy crap…" I said. It wasn't my eyes, or even my face. It was Isobu's head. "AHHHHHH!" I screamed, forgetting that I wasn't me at the moment. My shout came out as a loud roar that reverberated around the training area.

 **Shush!"** Isobu quickly quieted. **"We're ending it right now, before anyone can get over here,"** he declared, and I agreed. Letting Isobu's chakra calm, I slowly reverted back to my original self, sighing with relief to see that the transformation went off without a hitch.

"We did it!" I celebrated, jumping around.

"Did what, exactly?" a voice asked in a tone that stopped me in my tracks. Suddenly scared for my life, I slowly turned around to see Kaa-chan and Ao standing there, with Chojuro just a little farther off.

"Uh….nothing?" That didn't go well with Kaa-chan, who narrowed her eyes in severe annoyance.

" **Kid….We're screwed,"** Isobu said in my head.

'...yup.'

XXXXX

"Kaiza-kun, what did we tell you about terrorizing the whole village?" Kaa-chan began to lecture me. In the living room, she sat down with a very irritated look in her eye, knowing that some of the council members would jump on things like this if not only to make life more difficult for her and me.

"Umm….You never told me about not terrorizing the whole village," I replied, chuckling nervously when her eye started to twitch ever so slightly.

"...Aside from that," she redirected, realizing that she didn't tell me that, "You have to show that you and the Sanbi get along, or that you can control your power so that the village won't be in constant fear."

"No, I never lost control!" I explained. "See, we did the full transformation, and I looked in the river and screamed when I saw Is….Sanbi's face instead of min." I mentally sighed when they didn't notice my close slip of Isobu's name.

"Can you show us? Just to be sure," Kaa-chan asked, though it came off as more of a challenge to prove that I was telling the truth.

"Yeah!" I agreed, leading to the four of us going back outside to the practice ground for me to put my money where my mouth is.

A few moments later, I stood a good distance away from Kaa-chan, Ao and Chojuro as they looked on, waiting for the transformation.

'Ready, Isobu?' I called out in my mind.

" **Yeah, let's get this over with so I can nap in peace,"** he said lazily, giving me a giant sweatdrop.

Closing my eyes, I breathed slowly, allowing Isobu's chakra to come out and flow along with mine, the two of us coming together as one. Faster than earlier, three tails sprouted out as I felt the chakra take the shape of the Three-tailed Turtle.

Finished, in place of my body stood Isobu in all his glory. Chojuro looked absolutely shell-shocked, having his mouth drop to comical proportions. Ao's eye hardened, although a clear expression of surprise also crossed his face. Kaa-chan, however, had an unreadable expression on her face.

"Kaiza-kun?" she asked.

"Yes?" I replied, surprising them as my voice came through Isobu's body.

"Can you lift one tail?" Wondering what she was thinking, I lifted the right tail calmly, and put it back down a few seconds after.

"Blink the eye?" I blinked. "Put the right foot forward?" I put the right foot forward. "Roll into a ball?" I never did that with Isobu before, but giving him a little bit more control, his tails curled up as his body went downward, creating basically a steamroller-on-command. A few seconds later, we let go and got out of shell form, as I will now call it.

"Wow…." Kaa-chan said after many moments of silence, Ao and Chojuro not saying a word. Taking that the examination was over, I reverted back to my human form and went up to Kaa-chan.

"Well, that was interesting," I said. "So, Chojuro, wanna get some sweet dango?"

XXXXX

 _The next day…._

"Ugh, why can't time go any faster?" I asked, seeing that it was barely past 3 AM and team assignments didn't start until 7:30.

" **Why can't you sleep longer?"** a voice rejoined.

"Why can't you sleep less?" I threw back, a tick mark on my head, knowing that lazy turtle slept like 15 hours a day.

" **Sleeping is good, and I need a lot of it."**

"Sure…" I drawled out, getting out of bed for the day. Going to the shower, I gave a sigh of relaxation as the hot water hit my body.

After that was done, I walked back to my room, with a towel around my waist, and went over to the drawer to see what clothes I would wear. Looking inside, I chose a blue shirt with a white and black dolphin going around each other in a yin-yang type way with blue ninja pants. Putting everything on (underwear included), I looked back at the clock only to breathe through my nose loudly as the clock said 3:36. "I'll just make some breakfast or something," I decided, trying to waste as much time as possible. As I got to the stairs, something entered my mind, and I decided to give it a try when I finished breakfast.

After giving Twilight a good scratch, I opened the fridge and took out eggs, bacon, sausage, along with the salt and pepper and all the other good breakfast stuff. Putting the skillet on the stove, I let the butter melt after moving it around a bit while I put all the eggs in a bowl. When the butter was nice and melted, I added the eggs in the skillet while getting another skillet out for the meat.

After all that was done, I grabbed two pieces of bread, and toasted it with some fire chakra. Going to the refrigerator, I got out the grape jelly and strawberry jelly (Kaa-chan liked strawberry, which is pretty disgusting). I put the grape on one piece and the strawberry on the other, before putting all that back.

A great smell hitting my nose, I went back to the stove with plates in hand to make our plates for breakfast. Getting some eggs, a few pieces of bacon and sausage, along with some toast, I put the plates on the table. Now, I wondered how this plan of mine would go while walking up the staircase to the upper hallway.

Going down the hallway, I stopped outside the doorway to Kaa-chan's room. Cautious, I made a water clone to do the deed for me, while I hid a couple of feet from the doorway. Nodding my head, the clone sighed, knowing its lifespan would be short before giving a loud bang to the door.

Not even two second later, a water dragon blew the door down and crashed into the clone, destroying it on impact before dissipating right before it blew a hole in the house. Slowly walking to the doorway, I peeked in to see Kaa-chan with a look of death on her face. She had on a blue nightgown, her reddish hair in a complete mess and her eyes black holes of death.

"Breakfast is ready, Kaa-chan!" I told her, smiling widely as the Mizukage looked as if she wanted to beat me into a bloody mess. She looked at the clock, which said 4:04, and slowly turned her head back at me, her eyes promising there will be hell to pay later. "I'm going to take a shower," she said coolly, walking to the bathroom.

"So, are you gonna-" I was interrupted as Kaa-chan slammed the door, almost making it cave in on itself from the sheer force she closed it with. Smiling, I went downstairs and began my breakfast, enjoying the food I cooked.

About ten minutes after, Kaa-chan finally came downstairs in her blue dress, her hair still a mess, albeit much better than earlier, and her pink socks without shoes. Giving me a stink eye, she sat down and began eating without a word. "Kaa-chan, what was it like when you were a Genin?" I asked curiously, as she didn't talk much about that time in her life to me.

"It was….interesting," she began, deciding to talk to me after what seemed like an internal conflict. "The Bloody Mist was reigning supreme, and so it was either keep up or die."

"And when you first started?"

"...Don't be too disappointed with your first mission," she vaguely said, although she cracked a devious grin as she crunched on a piece of bacon.

'She's planning something,' I thought immediately after the last word left her mouth. Putting that information into the back of my head for later, I finished breakfast and got up to clean off my plate. Looking at the clock, I sighed internally again to see it was only 4:17, with more than 3 hours before team assignments.

"Kaiza-kun, would you want to train a little?" Kaa-chan offered, walking into the kitchen to clean her plate. "It could make a lot of time go by faster."

"Sure!" I agreed. "What are we doing?"

"Just some sparring and exercises," she yawned, showing she needed this to truly wake up. Nodding, I put the now cleaned dishes in the cabinet, before doing the same with the pots and pans on the stove. After that, I made sure Twilight had enough food and water before we headed out.

Like the usual, Kaa-chan had me run a good number of laps (I never remembered how many), followed by push-ups, sit-ups, and all that good stuff. When I was finished, I stood waiting for what she'd say next. Instead of saying anything however, she simply began to slowly make hand signs for the lava jutsu that we always use.

" _Lava Style: Melting Apparition_!" She blew a blanket of lava at me. "Don't defend against it," she ordered, and I just stood there as the lava covered me.

Initially scared of all hell, I was shocked to see that the lava simply flowed off my body, not burning me to ashes. "What…."

"Lava users have an innate immunity to lava jutsu," she began to explain. "Even if it isn't ours, we have a resistance to it, similar to a snake resisting the effects of many poisons. That resistance to heat can also be spread to fire jutsu, which puts us at an advantage over shinobi with that element," she continued. "So, I want you to work on building up your resistance to fire-style jutsu, which will serve to help you to strengthen your defenses and capabilities."

"How do I do that? Jump in a fire?" I said cheekily.

"Or stand in one," she offered, going through another set of hand signs. " _Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu_!" A large fireball crashed towards me, and fighting all my instincts to dodge or counter it, I stuck it out. I grunted and crashed my teeth together as the fireball crashed into me, since it hurt like crap.

"You took that very well," she observed, seeing that I had limited burns on my skin where other people would probably be closely resembling crisps. "Sadly, the only way to get resistance is through pain, so while we won't do too much of that today, we'll have to do it some other time."

I simply nodded, the phrase "no pain, no gain" going into my mind. "So….anything else?"

"Nope!" she said, smiling. "I have to do final checks and give briefings to the upcoming Jonin sensei."

"That was so messed up," I called her out, since she played on my anxiety with even more suspense.

"If you think that's bad," she started, "Wait until you actually begin your career as a genin." She gave a smile that screamed 'revenge would come soon.' "We still have time then, so we'll have to part here. I'll see you after you get settled into everything today." Nodding, I watched as she became a swirl of water and shunshined away.

With nothing better to do, I looked inside the house to see what time it is. "5:45…" I read aloud, extremely irritated that there was the better part of two hours left until team assignments. "Wait, I know what to do!" I suddenly shouted, running to my room as I finally remembered the best way of passing time ever.

Going to the nightstand by my bed, I quickly opened the drawer to reveal a book of crossword puzzles along with a pencil. Sitting criss-cross on the bed, I opened the book and flipped to the next incomplete puzzle in the book. Eliciting a sigh of happiness, I started the book as a snort came from inside my head. 'Go back to sleep,' I grumbled, before going back to my crossword puzzle.

" **Careful what you wish for."**

"I'll take my chances," I clapped back, pleased to hear nothing but another snort in reply.

XXXXX

"Alright, it's finally time!" I exclaimed, seeing that the time was 7:15. Doing a quick last-minute supply check, I jumped out the window of my room (it opens) and landed outside to see Chojuro walking over with a grin on his face.

"Excited, huh?" he said, looking back up to the window.

"How can you not be!?" I shouted as we started the quick walk to the Academy. To think we were about to become ninja….This really seemed surreal. "It all seems so crazy," I said, grabbing Chojuro's attention. "It looks like just yesterday when we just met."

"Yup," he agreed. "Now we're gonna be ninja….I hope we're on the same team."

"We will be, I'm sure of it!" I reassured him as we walked into the Academy. Giving a quick "hello" to Mitzu at the front desk, we headed down to our classroom. Or former classroom, I guess it'd be more accurate to say.

Coming into the door, I quickly closed it in a blink of an eye. It seemed that was the right course of action, as no sooner than I fastened it shut, three kunai pierced the door, the tips sticking out of the wooden object. Sighing in exasperation, I opened the door again to see Shoru-sensei simply standing there as if he didn't know what in the world happened. "Good morning, Kaiza," he said, standing there with a crap-eating grin on his face.

"Hey to you, too…" I drawled, cautiously going to my seat. Chojuro stayed standing for a moment longer before he sat down next to me, much to Shoru-sensei's enjoyment and my irritation.

Looking at the clock, I was glad to see that it was 7:29 and the rest of the classroom had began to settle for the assignments. A few seconds later, the minute hand hit the six and the moment I had been waiting for forever had finally come. "Alright, calm down, maggots!" Shoru-sensei boomed. "Today, you stop being snot-eating students of the Academy, and you become adult ninja of Kirigakure. Now, listen closely. I have seen all of you coming up, from the little runts you were to the bigger runts you are today. This life is not for the weak, so quit while you're ahead if you don't have the guts. And if you do, be prepared to let them get carved out in the name of your village."

With that….interesting speech, Shoru-sensei cleared his throat before he began talking again. "Now, listen closely as I call out team assignments. Team A will consist of…." tuning all of that out, I simply took a silent break until I realized that the next team would be mine. "Team H will consist of Terumi Kaiza and Kirishi Chojuro, and the Jonin sensei will be Ganryu."

"Hey, why do they only have two members!?" Saruka yelled from the back, obviously mad about whatever.

"You know math, right?" Shoru-sensei snapped back. "If you have 23 graduates, you fit three men squads perfectly." Having the decency to look embarrassed, the crazy girl sat down with a tinge of red coming onto her face. "Anyways, your jonin sensei will come after lunch to pick you up." As if it was all planned, the lunch bell rang as soon as Shoru-sensei finished his sentence. Getting up for the last day, Chojuro and I headed back to our lunch bench that we always used as Academy members and took a seat.

Taking out my lunch, which was a bento and some chocolate chip cookies Karemai made for me. "Are you sure you're allowed to eat cookies like that?" Chojuro asked with a raised eyebrow as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"What Kaa-chan doesn't know won't hurt her," I shrugged, biting into the cookie that was oh so delicious. Snickering at me, Chojuro let it slide and we went back to eating before Saruka walked over to us, with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Why, hello, Chojuro," she greeted before turning to me. "And you."

"Hello to _you_ , too," I shot back, giving an obviously fake smile. It became a bit more genuine when her face contorted into something quite ugly, in my opinion. Her expression quickly became neutral again, however, as she turned back to Chojuro. "Chojuro, I just wanted to warn you," she said coming closer to him in a….provocative sense of the phrase. "I don't want to see you hurt. And being a ninja is hard….especially with _that_ danger lingering over you all the time," she hissed, looking at me. "Just be careful, okay, Chojuro?"

"He'll be just fine," I hissed back, breaking the two up. Chojuro simply looked like he wanted to throw up. "Thanks for the concern."

"Hmph, I'm watching you, beast. One wrong move, and you'll be shocked to crisps," she threatened, before walking away.

"That was….interesting," I commented, looking at Chojuro who nodded his agreement, biting into his sandwich again. A few minutes later, the bell rang again, signaling that the lunch period was over. Upon entering the room, we saw a group of Jonin lined up at the front of the room. Ganryu was near the end of the left side. He was a really great Jonin, and I'd met him more than once. He's a hardass, but a good-natured one compared to other hardasses I've met, although I learned very fast not to bring up anything about Iwa. Apparently, he was in an operation that did not end well and he was the only survivor.

"Glad my runts came first," he grunted at the sight of us. Chojuro and I were always the first to come back from lunch. "Brats, meet me at Training Ground 37. Don't be late." With that, he shunshined away, leaving Chojuro and I to blink.

"Welp, let's go!" I said to him, before we ran out the Academy. Jumping onto the roof, Chojuro and I roof-hopped until we got to the training grounds, and ran through the vast expanse of trees and nature until we saw Ganryu standing quietly in the center of the training ground.

"Good speed," he muttered. "Alright," he began, talking much louder. "Before we become an official team, I am going to give you a test. You pass, and we're a team. You fail, you're not on a team." We nodded; it was very straightforward. "Alright, you your task is to impress me with your skill," he said. "We're all going to fight, both of you against me. Come with the intent to kill, or you fail."

Looking at Chojuro, we had a silent conversation before we turned back to Ganryu. I decided to begin the first move of the battle, and threw kunai at him. Dodging expertly, he mimicked my action. Getting out of the way, I unsheathed my sword and quickly closed the gap and attempted to do a downward slash.

However, true to his kenjutsu prowess, Ganryu took out his own sword and blocked my strike, before kicking me away to block Chojuro's sword blow. Sliding back, I quickly reentered the fray, doing a horizontal slash. The Kiri Jonin quickly refocused his attention towards me, the two of us having a small kenjutsu clash. He was better than Chojuro at this, and I could tell he was holding back a little bit. Knowing that I was outmatched with Kenjutsu, I jumped back and made a handsign.

" _Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu_!" Five bullets of water flew from my mouth, crashing towards Ganryu. He quickly separated from Chojuro to avoid the jutsu, putting some distance between him and us.

"So, any ideas?" I asked my friend, as the man was a good distance away for us to come up with a plan.

"Neither of us can beat him in a sword fight, but I can distract him enough for you to get him with a jutsu." Nodding, we both made four water clones to attack the older man, who simply raised an eyebrow and his sword.

"Clones? You think that'll work?" he taunted, taking out half of them with a single swipe of his sword. Chojuro jumped in the air for an overhead strike while I prepared for the right time. Right before Ganryu took out the last clone and prepared to fight Chojuro, I finished the jutsu and inhaled deeply.

" _Lava Style: Lava Wave Jutsu_!" Lava spread a huge distance from my mouth, threatening to submerge the Jonin and Chojuro. His eyes widening, he quickly made his way out of the lava's path before his eyes hardened again as the real Chojuro came back next to me.

"Now you're trying to kill," he conceded, before rushing at us again, going almost as fast as Kaa-chan's full speed. Chojuro clashed with him first, keeping up with the Jonin in terms of swordsmanship barely better than me. Not wanting him to take the fight alone, I jumped in again, this time channeling water chakra through my sword. Ganryu, with his butcher-like sword, easily blocked my blow and disarmed me. He then smacked me away with his foot before refocusing on Chojuro. He lasted longer, but eventually the man disarmed him as well. Before Ganryu could do anything else, Chojuro backpedaled away from him and prepared to do his own jutsu.

" _Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu_!" A half dozen blobs of water shot out his mouth towards the Jonin, who simply deflected them with his sword as if they were flies.

" _Lava Style: Lava Bullet Jutsu_!" I then yelled, shooting lava balls at him. Instead of deflecting them like the water balls, Ganryu jumped out of the way entirely. Chojuro used the moment to grab our swords back and met up with me again.

"You see what I see?"

"Yup," I replied. "He won't even attempt to block lava jutsu."

"Keep it up on him," Chojuro told me. "I might be able to surprise him from behind." Nodding, I readied the hand signs for another lava jutsu.

" _Lava Style: Melting Apparition_!" As expected, Ganryu didn't try to block, but ran right of the path of the blanket of lava. Leading him to Chojuro, I didn't give him any reprieve and continued to fire lava at him. Eventually, Ganryu jumped up in the air near a tree.

"Now!" I yelled. Suddenly, a shower of kunai with explosive tags rained down on the Jonin, causing a pretty large explosion.

Chojuro and I came together in the smoke, though we saw that Ganryu substituted with a log to avoid the blast. A few moments later, the gray smoke disappeared, although a thick mist stayed in its place, signaling that the Jonin was using the _Hidden Mist Jutsu_.

On guard, we stuck by each other as close as possible, not giving any clear opening for Ganryu to take advantage of. Channeling chakra to my ears, I listened as closely as possible before I heard Ganryu coming up on my right side. Without a second thought, I blasted more lava bullets that direction, and heard the slightest disturbance in his breathing. Now that I knew where he was, I grabbed two kunai with explosive tags attached and threw them at him.

"Kaiza!" Chojuro yowled, grabbing my attention. The mist let up to see that a charred log was in place of where I threw the explosive tags and Ganryu had Chojuro almost backed into a tree.

"Hold on!" I shouted back, going through another round of hand signs. " _Earth Style: Mud Wall Jutsu_!" Before Ganryu could complete his swing, a wall of earth shot up and took the blow for Chojuro. As a diversion, I shot six water bullets at the Jonin, while going back for Chojuro. Reunited, we hid in a tree a little while away to come up with another plan.

"Okay, this dude is playing with us, and we're getting beat," I said, only for Chojuro to give me a captain obvious look. "Should I do….it?" I asked nervously. The boy seemed to be nervous himself, before he gave a confident nod.

"It's technically a last-resort," he told me. "Besides, all I have left is the water dragon and that will tax my chakra a lot."

"Welp, last-resort it is, then." With that, we jumped back to the clearing, where Ganryu stood calmly, his sword still brandished.

"Are you two finished?" he asked.

"Far from it," I smirked, a red cloak appearing around me as I channeled Isobu's chakra. His eyes hardened as a chakra tail formed out of my tailbone. "Chojuro, let's go!" I led, with a burst of speed. Ganryu and I had another sword fight, this time he had to use more effort to keep me off him. Slashing with all his force, he managed to push me back. Using the momentum, I backflipped and jumped into the air, doing some hand signs while I was at it.

" _Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave_!" From my mouth, a torrent of water came out, forcing Ganryu to take to the trees in order to avoid being dragged into the mini-tsunami. When the jutsu finished, the battlefield had basically became a seashore, a layer of water covering a large part of the field.

Getting on the water, Chojuro and I stared at Ganryu, who seemed to be the a bit surprised at what just happened.

"Well….hot damn," he commented. "I might have to take you completely serious." Cracking his neck, he rushed at us with his full speed, closing the distance within a matter of seconds. Doing more hand signs, I smirked as a dome of water surrounded me and Chojuro.

" _Water Style: Shell Spike Jutsu_!" Ganryu stopped in his tracks when spikes of water shot out of the water bubble, almost impaling him if not for a well-timed substitution. Lowering the dome, I ran towards the Jonin, going for the offensive. With all the strength I had, I smashed my sword into his. Grunting immensely, Ganryu pushed back, and almost overpowered me when Chojuro's voice rang out.

" _Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu_!"

" _Water Style: Coral Prison Jutsu_!" I added in, coral coming from the water to keep Ganryu in place as Chojuro's water dragon blasted towards him. With seemingly no way out, the water dragon crashed into the Jonin.

"Chojuro!" I called, seeing how he looked dead tired after that jutsu. Running over, I canceled the cloak, thinking that Ganryu wouldn't do much else. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah….Just a bit-watch out!" he suddenly yowled. Turning around, I saw Ganryu less than 3 meters away from me with two pieces of paper in his hand. Before I could do anything, he slapped the paper on me, and I felt my chakra get pushed down immediately. Getting down on one knee in exhaustion, Chojuro and I looked at Ganryu and compared it to us.

He still looked fresh, save for the occasional pant he did. His pants looked a little burnt, probably because of the earlier lava jutsu, and he had the slightest bit of blood coming out of his arm. It still looked like it came from a kitchen accident, though, compared to us.

Chojuro and I were sleeping like babies when we finish with this.

"Alright, that's enough," he ordered, not that we were much ready to try anything else. "Consider yourselves Shinoi. You impressed me." Despite our extreme tiredness, we were able to have a small celebration, giving each other a high five. "We start missions and training the day after tomorrow. Be here at 6 AM sharp. I don't tolerate tardiness." With that, he shunshined away, leaving Chojuro and I to our own devices.

"So….wanna get cookies?" I asked him. He gave me an "I wanna sleep for a week" faces, but I ignored it and gleefully smiled. "Cookies it is!"

XXXXX

After buying a case (or 3) of cookies from Karemai-chan, Chojuro decided to go home and rest for a bit, while I went back to the house myself. Opening the door, I was a little surprised to see Ao standing there.

"Ao? What are you doing here?"

"Mizukage-sama told me to give you this." Taking out a scroll, he channeled chakra into it and a sword popped out. "I also have something to give to Chojuro."

"He's at his house," I told the man. He nodded, and disappeared as I took the sword out the sheath.

It was a beautiful blue katana that was about five feet long. The shiny steel flowed with energy and the very look of it seemed like it could cut your eye out. Putting the sword back in its sheathe, I read the scroll from Ao.

" _This sword was made specially for you, Kame-kun. Call it a present for becoming a Genin of Kiri._

 _Fifth Mizukage,_

 _Mei Terumi (Kaa-chan)_

"Thank you, Kaa-chan," I said quietly, my eyes closed as I held the sword in my hands. Now, I wasn't just some kid in Kiri's Academy.

I'm a ninja. And I'm gonna be the best ninja that anyone has ever seen.

XXXXX

A/N: That's a wrap! Sorry for the lateness, I can't really give an excuse, but please forgive me! With that….see ya next time! (Yeah, I don't have anything to say.)


	10. Genin Days

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: Hey, it's 2 in the morning and idk what to say, so have fun readin'!

XXXXX

 _The next morning…_

Yawning, I started to stretch my arms as I slowly cracked my eyes. Looking to the right, I saw the clock, which had the time at 4:24. Groaning, I threw my legs over the side of the bed and scratched my head.

Yesterday, Chojuro and I got our genin assignments. Our sensei, Ganryu, also gave us another test after the exams, which was a full on battle against him. I deflated a bit when the memories surfaced to the forefront of my mind; he was good. We could barely touch the guy, although we managed to pull something over on him.

Sighing, I got on my feet and headed for the shower. I should've expected Ganryu to be hard; there are stories about how good that guy is. Some even say he probably could be considered for being a Swordsman of the Mist, if the group was still intact. To my knowledge, all were either dead or missing nin.

"At least that means we have a lot to learn," I said to myself as I turned on the shower and got in. The hot water pounding on my body greatly eased the soreness from yesterday's battle, making me sigh in relief. After a good scrubbing, I went back to the room and threw on a blue shirt with black ninja pants accompanied with blue sandals. Scratching my head lazily, I walked downstairs to make some breakfast, only to see Kaa-chan with some coffee and a newspaper sitting at the table.

"Morning," I yawned, walking over to the fridge to pull out some bacon.

"Good morning," she returned. "How was the test?" she asked just as I put the skillet on the stove.

"...You're evil," I grumbled, cracking some eggs in a bowl after putting butter in a skillet.

"It couldn't have been that bad? Ganryu is a tough cookie, but I'd imagine you and Chojuro would be more than a match." Turning on the stove, I sent Kaa-chan a glare at the obvious crack.

"He was good. We have a lot to learn from him."

"Glad to hear, and all jonin sensei gave a report," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. "You used the Three-tail's chakra?" At that, I immediately stopped for a second before continuing with breakfast.

"Only one tail," I said with an even tone.

"Are you going to train today?"

"Nope, he said our first official day is tomorrow."

"Great!" she exclaimed. "Then you can help me at the office!"

"Do I have to?" I complained, waiting for the food to get done.

"Either that or you catch Raiza."

"Who?"

"The pet salamander of the Water Daimyo's wife," she explained. "He has a penchant for getting away from her, so it'd be good tracking practice."

"...Nah, I'm good," I declined. From when I hung around the Hunter triplets, the nightmare stories were more than enough to steer me away from that.

"Well, come on, then," she said as I brought our food to eat. We had a regular breakfast peppered with small talk about various topics before we both headed out the house. The sun wasn't out yet, and the streets were mostly empty except for the occasional person passing by.

When we turned the last corner to get to the Kage building, a yell caught our attention. "Hey, you!" Looking behind me, a clearly drunk person, a civilian by the look of it, was glaring daggers at me.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine…...when you drop dead, demon!" he slurred, taking out a beer bottle and rushing at me. Instantly in defense mode, I grabbed his arm and twisted it, disarming the man of his weapon before tossing him on his back. I had a kunai in my hand, ready to finish the job if he tried anything. However, he just spit by my foot in disgust.

"Kill me, stupid turtle demon. Just like Ya-ack!" Kaa-chan had reached her limit with the man, and now had him by his throat.

"That is my son. And you won't say another word if you value your life," she coldly said, before snapping her fingers. Instantly, a group of ANBU appeared around us on one knee. "Take him away," she directed. They listened to her, taking the drunk man to probably the prison or the T&I Department.

With a neutral face, I continued walking before I got called. "Kaiza-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?" she asked. In all honesty, I was shaken by the incident. However, I just nodded my head and gave a small smile.

"Yup. Why wouldn't I be?" Before she could respond, I continued to talk. "Let's get to the office so you can finish yesterday's paperwork before today's shipment comes in." Humming in agreement, we walked to our destination in a rather uncomfortable silence.

XXXXX

 _The next day…_

At 5:30 sharp, I already showered and was getting my supplies ready. Kaa-chan and I already ate breakfast and the former had already left for the tower for her daily duties of paperwork and such. That meant I was home alone for the time being until I went to Training Ground 37 where Ganryu-sensei awaited us. "Isobu, should I take my crossword?" I asked aloud, since I was alone in the house.

" **Heck if I know,"** he replied, making a yawning motion as I felt him moving around as if trying to get more comfortable. **"What I do know is that you need to work on your reflexes."** I nodded in agreement with the lazy turtle; yesterday showed me how far I have to go against a Jonin. Even if Ganryu was one of the best the village had to offer as a mid-to high A rank Jonin, we should've done better.

"Yeah, I should've gotten away when he slapped a seal on me. We'll have to find a way around that."

" **Correction: You'll have to find a way around it."** Huffing, I rolled my eyes at what the turtle implied.

"Yeah, yeah." Wrapping the headband around my head, as I resigned to doing instead of having it on my arm, I reached for my katana and strapped it on my back before exiting through the window. Roof hopping, I briefly enjoyed the wind running by my face until I reached the training grounds. Landing, I kept running until I got to training ground 37. When I got there, I only saw Chojuro, who was standing alert for someone to show up. "Hey, Chojuro!" I said as I walked up to him.

"Hey Kaiza!" he returned. "Well, it's our first day as real ninja." I nodded in agreement, just as Chojuro thought of something. "Do you know when Ganryu-sensei is going to arri-Look out!" he shouted. I turned my head lazily to see shuriken coming our way. Quickly, I pulled out my katana (I need to think of a cool name….Azura! Yeah, that's good) and deflected all of them, before I got another chill come down my spine. Whipping back around, I pointed my sword at what happened to be Ganryu-sensei. The three of us were at a standstill until he gave a "hmph" and put his sword on his back.

"At least you can respond decently to an ambush," he remarked. "Anyways, listen good squirts. We come here every weekday. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, we train. The rest of the days, you have missions unless stated otherwise. Don't expect to be spoon-fed, or I'll throw you back with the Academy babies." We nodded, expecting as much from the Jonin. "Now, onto your assessment Monday." He turned to me. "Kaiza, you are adept in fighting in the hidden mist jutsu. That was Jonin-level stealth you caught onto. Also, your Kenjutsu is about low chunin level, not bad for an academy graduate, but poor for a Kiri ninja." It took everything I had not to sweatdrop at the blunt assessment.

"However," he continued. "Your ninjutsu and chakra levels are rather impressive. The only person I know of that could pull off that big jutsu of yours is Kisame. I'd place that around Jonin-level. Overall, you need work, but we have something to work with." With that said, he turned to Chojuro to give his opinion. "Your kenjutsu style is better than the other runt, but I'd still place it around mid-Chunin level. Your hesitation when attacking is noted, and can get you killed. Your silent killing needs work, as well. Your jutsu can't be compared to a Jinchuriki like your teammate, but it's good in its own right. Don't see a Genin pull a water dragon everyday." We both absorbed the assessment as he told us what we did wrong and what we did right.

"Now, keep that in mind for tomorrow's training. Now, we have missions." With that, he turned and jumped off in the direction of the Kage building. Without a second thought, Chojuro and I both followed our sensei for our very first mission.

XXXXX

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" I yelled seeing what we had to do. Kaa-chan's smile told me everything I needed to know. 'This was planned all along….'

"Plenty serious, Kaiza-kun," the Mizukage replied, her eyes gleaming as she got the revenge foreshadowed at home. "Your first mission will be painting your client's fence. Now, hurry along so I can give you another mission." Giving her a dirty look, I turned on my heel to follow Ganryu-sensei to the client's house. Turns out, our client was an old man with a somewhat large beard and brown clothes.

"Ah, so these are the ninja who'll clean my fence?" he remarked, looking us over before stopping at me. His gaze hardened, and I could tell he didn't like me.

"Yes, Team Ganryu reporting," Ganryu-Sensei said.

"Well, the paint cans are over there," he directed, showing us the paint which was on his lawn next to the fence. "Please don't do anything other than your job," he said scathingly, though all the venom was towards me. The old man then walked into his house, leaving us to do the mission. When the door closed, I simply sighed before Chojuro and I got to work. Just then, I noticed that Ganryu-sensei hadn't moved an inch since the old man retreated inside.

"Sensei, aren't you working, too?" I asked. In response, he gave a small smirk.

"You're the runts, not me. Now get it done, I'm bored."

XXXXX

 _1 month later…_

"Morning, Kaa-chan!" I said brightly. It was around 6 in the morning, but Ganryu-sensei told us to meet him in the Kage building for our first C-rank mission, something I looked forward to greatly. The last month of D ranks had been absolute HELL. Not only were the missions mostly menial work that Academy kids could've done, but I had to interact with hateful villagers who judged me for being a Jinchuriki. On more than one occasion I was about to lose it. The hateful clients singled me out to do the worst part of the task, or would offer something to Chojuro and Ganryu-sensei while telling me to stay put and keep away.

Fortunately, my team rejected all their offers. Ganryu-sensei had talked with me about the issue, that it was unavoidable in the life of a Jinchuriki, but that I could depend on him and Chojuro. That got me through all 27 D ranks we did in the last month.

On a lighter note, training with Sensei made both Chojuro and I better. He put chakra weights on both of us, and we currently were at 30 pounds for our arms and legs. His regiment included heavy physical exercise and running, along with 200 practice swings with every arm every training period. If it weren't for my crazy stamina, I'd be near dead by the first week of it.

I also started learning a new kenjutsu style called the Umi no Odore. According to the history books, it was used by Uzumaki and involved turning water into a volatile weapon. Isobu told me that the style would work best considering my crazy reserves and strong water affinity, and the lazy turtle was right. After working through some of the katas, I could definitely see a difference as I could force Ganryu-sensei to take me serious most of the time in our kenjutsu spars.

Chojuro was a whole different animal, however. After he got Hiramekarei, he and Ganryu-sensei had worked hard trying to increase his reserves so he could fight for a long time. Needless to say, Chojuro was a kenjutsu beast in the works. Given a couple years time for experience, he'll be one of the Seven Swordsmen just like he dreamed.

We also got further along with our jutsu. Kaa-chan would help me and Chojuro out whenever she had the time, which wasn't very often. Whenever we were available, we usually worked on ninjutsu since that was her specialty. Chojuro could now do about two water dragons before his chakra almost completely depleted, so that was something. Also, I learned some water jutsu from Isobu that Yagura himself used.

All in all, the month wasn't completely bad. Those D-ranks can still go to hell, though.

"Good morning, Kame-kun," Kaa-chan returned. "I assume today is a good day for you."

"Of course it is! I get to go on a C-rank at last! No more crappy villagers and boring missions."

"Kaiza," she started. "You learned why we do those missions and how important even the worst one is to our village. Even if it may be harder for you since people will judge you prematurely," she admitted, "You gave an oath to protect the village as a ninja, even those who don't treat you the best."

"I understand," I said, closing my eyes. Every word she said was right, even if I might not have liked it.

"So, are you prepared for your first C-rank?" she diverted, shifting topics to something more exciting.

"Of course! I've got all my storage scrolls loaded!" It was true; I had a water storage seal that Ao taught me and Chojuro so we could have water in a dry location if we had to fight. I also had food rations and extra weapon scrolls for kunai and shuriken in case I ran out.

"Well then, let's head to the building and see what you have. Knowing Ganryu, he's waiting there already."

True to her word, Sensei was indeed waiting for us, Chojuro standing next to him. "Morning Chojuro!"

"Morning Kaiza!" he returned.

"Team Ganryu," Kaa-chan called as she opened a scroll with the letter "C" on it and tossed it to Ganryu-sensei. "Your mission is to deal with a group of bandits that have been wreaking havoc in Hayashi no Kuni, the Land of Woods. They were reported in Hozuka town, a coastal town of the country. The ship is set to go there in two hours," she briefed with a face that was all business.

"Understood. Team Ganryu will depart now," he said. The Jonin then turned to us. "Let's go, the ship's leaving soon." Leaving the Kage building, we quickly headed off to the docks to find where we needed to go.

XXXXX

 _5 hours later…._

Greatly enough, we didn't have to do much. With a fast boat that was specially meant for us, we were able to get to the Land of Woods in good time. That meant Chojuro could stop almost throwing up every five minutes. "Chojuro, how are you going to be a ninja from Kiri who's seasick?" I teased. He gave me a dirty look as an answer.

"It was just nerves, for the last time," he defended yet again.

"Never seen nerves that bad, then," Ganryu-sensei said, throwing his own two-cents in. Chojuro simply glared at me as I laughed at his expense. "The mayor of town should be awaiting us here."

"That would be me," a voice said conveniently afterwards. We all turned to see a middle-aged man on the older side with glasses, a black shirt and some brown pants. "Are you the ninja?"

"Yes, we're here to fix your bandit problem."

"Ah, wonderful," the man said with relief. "Those brutes have been causing trouble since the set up outside town a few weeks ago. Now, they come once a month for money or they steal from us, and we have no ninja to do anything about it."

"Understood," Sensei replied. "Do you have a place for us to rest?"

"Yes, we have space at our resident hotel, let me…" We ended up following the man to the hotel to plan how we would do our mission.

XXXXX

"Let's hear it from you; what's an acceptable form of action for our mission?" sensei asked us.

"Hm….seeing as our bandits operate undercover, that would mean they're more active at night," I started.

"Then that means we should attack at night," Chojuro finished. Sensei simply narrowed his eyes after hearing our assessment.

"How would we find the base?" he asked. At that, I cracked a smile.

"Interrogation." Shifting his gaze to me, he stared before breaking into a small chuckle.

"Izuna, you sick bastard," he muttered. It confused me for a moment, until I remember an Academy day where Izuna, the leader of our T&I department, taught us interrogation techniques. "Alright then. When the sun sets, we begin our search for the bandits. Just to be clear, our job is to wipe them out." Nodding, we began to steel ourselves to carry out our first C-rank mission as Genin.

XXXXX

 _Little past sunset…._

The sun had set mere minutes ago, and we already were positioned to ambush a bandit. According to the mayor, they would come early in the night, before they came out in bigger groups in the dead of night. " _Chojuro, Kaiza, in position?_ " Ganryu-sensei said over the walky-talky.

"Yes, we're in position," I confirmed. The two of us had taken to hiding in a tree at the forest's edge. There, we would ambush the bandit and use him for interrogation.

" _Good, hold until we get a-_ " Sensei suddenly stopped speak. The talky then made a sound again. " _Get ready for my signal. Target at your 10 o'clock._ " Looking to the northwest, we saw a bandit carrying an axe around in the direction of the village. Grabbing the hilt of Azura, Chojuro and I shared a look before turning back to the unaware bandit. " _...Now!_ "

Jumping from the branch, I quickly disarmed his weapon, his axe whirling into a tree. At the same time, Chojuro quickly wrapped him with ninja wire, and had Hiramekarei right as his throat. "Good job," a voice behind us said.

"Hey, what're ya doing!?" the man yowled. In response, Ganryu-sensei pulled out a kunai before stabbing it in his kneecap. Before he could shout, Chojuro grabbed his throat.

"Where's your base at?" the jonin asked, motioning for Chojuro to release the bandit.

"You're not gettin' anything outta me!" he rejected. In response, Ganryu-sensei cracked a smile.

"Oh really now?" he said. "If you don't want my students to get to you, I think you better answer the question."

"Hah, those pipsqueaks? What can they do?" he laughed, mocking the two of us. All sensei did was take a step back, before looking at me and pointing his head towards our interrogation target. Walking up, I gave him a stone cold face that I learned after perfecting it on the more ignorant villagers. "Heh, hey brat! You gonna tickle me to death!?" he taunted.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," I said in a lifeless tone. Channeling some of Isobu's chakra, I concentrated my KI on him as my eyes changed to pink with a large yellow iris.

The effect was instantaneous. The bandit squirmed, his expression going from arrogant to afraid in the blink of an eye. "What are you?"

"Your worst nightmare," I responded, taking out a kunai. "Now, **where is your base?** " I repeated, mixing Isobu's voice with mine to appear more menacing.

"I-It's right at the back of the woods!" he squealed. "Go straight from here, then a small road on the right leads to an abandoned warehouse. Swear! Now, don't kill me." Canceling Isobu's chakra, I stepped back as sensei came forward again.

"...Sorry, but no." Before the bandit could say anything, a kunai went between his eyes, killing him instantly. "Let's go." Tree-hopping through the forest, we found that the bandit had indeed told the truth. After a couple minutes, a small dirt road opened up. Staying in the trees, we followed the road until we arrived at a secluded warehouse. Two men with swords guarded the entrance.

"Let's see what you learned," Sensei said, turning to the to of us. "Kaiza, you use the _Hidden Mist Jutsu to cover yourself._ Then, you and Chojuro will kill the rest of the bandits inside. I'll jump in if necessary, but it shouldn't be. Clear?" We both nodded in understanding. Taking out Azura from its sheathe, I stood still as I summoned mist around us until the visibility was nearly zero. The bandits didn't know what to do, as their breathing pattern signalized that they were scared.

"Wh-What's going on?" the one on the left asked.

"I don't kn-ACK!" the other started before I cut his throat. Before he could drop, I killed the first bandit with a thrust through the stomach. Pulling my sword out, I started to shake from killing them before I forced the feeling to barf down.

" **Be careful, it feels like there's a ninja in there,"** Isobu warned. He had a point; there was a large chakra signature inside of the warehouse. It dwarfed everything else I could feel in there.

"Time to find out," I whispered, before I heard bodies hit the ground inside. Quickly making my way inside, I began to focus on the source of the chakra, whose breathing stayed rather stable although his location was obvious. Appearing behind the man, I performed an overhead strike only to have it blocked by a kunai. Dispelling the mist, Chojuro already had Hiramekarei pointed at the ninja, who laughed at his position.

He was a middle-aged man, though not with much facial hair. He had a headband that was from Kumo, in the land of thunder. However, it had a line through the middle, signifying that he was a missing-nin.

"Some squirts, how cute," he taunted. "Too bad you're going to die here." Charging forward, Chojuro channeled chakra into Hiramekarei, turning it into hammer form and smashing into the man.

However, the impact only had a broken log as a result, signifying a substitution. Getting a chill on my back, I jumped to avoid a lightning jutsu. I made a hand sign while I stuck myself to the wall.

" _Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu_!" Six large globs of water shot from my mouth, with the ninja avoiding all but the last one. He was pushed back, giving Chojuro the chance to strike.

Jumping in, he smashed the ninja out of the wall with Hiramekarei's hammer. Quickly running outside, we found that he was dead, a bloody mess on top of a broken tree. "You kids are monsters for just becoming Genin, taking down a chunin so easily" a familiar voice from behind said. Turning around, we looked at Ganryu-sensei. "Usually, kids would be messed up after they kill someone. Eh, less for me to deal with." In response, Chojuro and I sweatdropped as I thought of a certain turtle in my stomach.

'Lazy ass…' I thought in my mind. "Anything else to do?" I asked. Sensei shook his head a negative.

"I already collected the ryo from the bandit base." He then walked up before taking his sword and decapitating the dead missing-nin's head. "Whenever you see a missing-nin, there's a bounty on his head," he informed as he sealed up the head. "Show them the head, you get extra payment. Since you did the mission, you can split the money between you." We nodded at the information, making sure to remember that.

'Ya know….I need to get a bingo book just in case,' I mentally noted.

"Now let's go to the hotel. Our boat ride leaves tomorrow morning." Agreeing, we headed back to the hotel to rest after completing our first C-rank mission.

XXXXX

A/N: Aaaand Done! Sorry for not having updated in a while, but I really have been busy lately. I've considered not doing the story, but after reading my own story, I realized I could still do so much with it and I was nowhere near done. So, I've been working on the next chapter and I should be near done with it before I release this one. With that said, see ya soon!

Blizzard, out!


	11. Kiri and Kumo! Mission Gone Wrong!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: Hey, y'all! Welcome back to another chapter! As usual, remember to fave, follow and REVIEW! Now, on with the story!

XXXXX

 _3 weeks later…_

"Team Ganryu reporting."

After our first C-rank, we started breezing through other missions. With Kaa-chan's permission, we left behind reinforced water clones to do D-ranks while we handled other missions. So, since our trip to Hayashi no Kuni, we've already done 6 C-ranks and 3 B-ranks. Ganryu-sensei still hasn't neglected our training, however. Currently, we were almost done getting adjusted to our new speed after having 40 pound chakra weights on our limbs. Sensei had said we wouldn't need to use weights for a while because too much could stunt our growth, and I plan on growing past 5'2 in my life.

"Here is your scroll," Kaa-chan said, throwing it over to Ganryu-sensei. "Your mission is an A-rank joint assignment with a genin team from Kumo. As you may know, we're trying to get out of exclusion and connect with the rest of the shinobi world. That means allies. For this mission, you must meet up with the Raikage in Kumogakure and give him this scroll I wrote for him. Then, you will work with the Genin team to complete the task."

"That's why you went to Kumo 2 weeks ago!" I suddenly realized. After doing our 3rd C-rank, Kaa-chan left the village for diplomatic purposes, taking Ganryu-sensei with her and leaving Ao in charge.

"Precisely," she confirmed. "Then you understand the importance of this mission." Then, her expression turned much more carefree. "Now, carry along. You have a mission to get to."

"Alright, come on, brats," Ganryu-sensei motioned. "Unless you want to water walk to Kumo, we have a boat to catch." That was a better incentive to get us rolling along; on one B-rank to the Land of Fire, he actually made us do that. Chojuro got so tired, I had to transform into Isobu and carry them the rest of the way.

That's something we'd rather not experience again.

XXXXX

 _2 days later…._

"So, what do you think this Kumo team is going to be like?" I asked Chojuro as we walked to Kumo. We had almost reached the village already.

"I have no idea," he bluntly said. "I can only hope they'll be friendly."

"Both of you, pay close attention on this mission," Ganryu-sensei said. "Other than Kiri, Kumo boasts some of the best kenjutsu experts."

"Still….I wonder why Kaa-chan would give us this mission. It's still an A-rank," Chojuro mentioned after a short silence.

"You both are rather strong for Genin," Sensei answered. "Chojuro can go toe to toe with the average chunin and Kaiza has more chakra than the Mizukage and the power to back it up. Throw in his….unique trait, and you'll be more than ready for the danger of an A-rank." After hearing that explanation, I simply nodded.

" **Hmm….I suspect the Mizukage had more than diplomatic procedure in mind when she picked your team in this mission,"** a voice said in my head.

'What do you mean?'

" **I can feel both Gyuki and Matatabi, the Eight-tails and Two-tails respectively."** My eyes widened and I almost stopped in my tracks. Thankfully, neither Chojuro or Sensei asked about it since they know it happens whenever I talk to Isobu. **"I would bet ten hours of sleep she also wanted you to meet other Jinchuriki,"** he hypothesized.

"...That does make sense," I said out loud, getting both of my teammates to turn to look at me. "...Uh, don't mind me," I waved off.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to you talking to the Three-tails," Chojuro remarked as the front gates of Kumogakure came into sight. "Is it weird having voices in your head?"

"It's….interesting," I answered. "Granted, I'm used to it now."

"Well, don't do it here," Ganryu-sensei said. "We don't need people thinking you're mentally unstable, not that they'd be wrong."

I gave Sensei a stink eye as Chojuro laughed at my expense. I just breathed very loudly as we approached Kumo's entrance.

"Halt!" both the gate guards said in unison. "State your purpose for being here," the guard on the left ordered.

"We're here on behalf of the Mizukage," Ganryu-sensei said coolly, throwing them a scroll for the to read. "We're here to see the Raikage and go on a joint mission."

"...Alright, you check out," the other gate guard said, throwing the scroll back to us. "No funny business," he warned as they opened the gate. Rolling my eyes, we walked into Kumogakure.

It was a complete culture shock. The buildings were very rectangular compared to the many round-shaped buildings in Kiri. Also, people were all over the streets of Kumo, where Kiri would not be as populated at this time of day, mostly because of the ridiculous mist that would be around until midday at the least.

One thing that didn't change was the stares, unfortunately. Though I guess it'd be a plus since they're wary that we're Kiri ninja and not what I have inside me. But I digress….

Before long, we made it to the Raikage's building and entered in. "Hello, how may I help you?" the secretary asked.

"We're here on the Mizukage's behalf," Sensei simply said, giving her the same scroll he gave the gate guards.

"Ah, you're the Genin team!" she noted after reading the scroll. "I'll tell the Raikage right away!" With that, she sped into the Kage's room, coming back less than a minute later. "He'll see you right now. Please follow me," she directed. Going down the hallway, she opened the door for us to walk in, coming face to face with the Raikage himself.

He was a big man, to say the least. He was a giant bag of muscles, with a blond beard, moustache and blonde hair put in braids. He had on only a white coat that did nothing to hide his hulking frame. "So this is the Kiri team….Why are there only two genin?" he asked instantly.

"Because there are only two," Sensei answered in the same tone. The Kage simply gave a "hmph" before turning to his secretary. "Mabui! Call B and his team to come here." She quickly bowed, before leaving to fulfill his request. Besides giving the Raikage the scroll from Kaa-chan, we waited in silence for a good moment until the other team arrived.

Suddenly, the door burst off its hinges, putting all of us into defense mode. Then, another man entered, bulky and blonde like the Raikage, but with eight swords on his back, greatly confusing team Ganryu. "Hey bro, what's the info? We ain't got time to wait, so let's get this good bait!"

Well, THAT was certainly an experience I'm not forgetting anytime soon. At least his genin students looked normal.

There was a fiery redhead with a very flat body and a sword on her back, as well as a boy who was eating a lollipop who also had a sword on him. The other girl however; was a standout.

'Isobu, that's her,' I mentally thought upon feeling her chakra presence. She had tight fitting clothes, and had her hair put into a long ponytail.

" **She has Matatabi inside of her. The creepy one with the horrible rap skill has Gyuki,"** Isobu confirmed. I suppressed a snicker at that comment before I looked "mentally unstable" as Sensei delicately put it.

"Grrrr….Cut it out!" the Raikage yelled at the Jonin.

"No can do, bro. Can't nobody stop my flow!" the man rejected. The Kage looked like he wanted to throw him out the window, but kept in his chair.

"Here is the Kiri team I told you about. You are to get rid of a ninja base that consists of 15 missing-nin from Ame and Iwa in the Land of Lightning. From our intel, they are all chunin or jonin level, hence the A-ranking of the mission. You will work with Kiri representatives to complete the mission. Dismissed."

"Hey, sensei of Kir-ey!" the man rapped. "I'm Bee, the Killer Bee!" he introduced. "Let's take rest for some beats for a meet-and-greet!" We all gave Bee a blank look before the blond with the ponytail sighed.

"He wants us to go somewhere to introduce ourselves," she translated. Nodding slowly, we followed the Kumo ninja to a rather secluded plateau a little ways outside the village proper.

"Alright! Since no one knows each others name, let's play the intro game!" Bee said again.

"Can you speak normal?" Ganryu-sensei muttered.

"He wants us all to give introductions," the blonde girl translated again. "I'll start," she volunteered. "I'm Yugito Nii. I like fish, sushi, cats and training. I dislike dogs, arrogant people, and traitors. My hobbies include training and stretching. I dream to become a great jonin." She then motioned to the other two Kumo genin.

"I'm Karui," the redhead started. "I like kenjutsu and spicy food. I dislike weaklings and sweet crap. My hobbies include swordplay and comedy. I dream to be the greatest swordsman in Kumo."

"I'm Omoi," the last one lazily introduced. "I like lollipops and sword training, I guess. I hate extra work, menial work, tiresome work, strange wor-"

"We get it, ya hate work!" the redhead interrupted. "Get on with it!"

"Jeez….My hobbies include sword training and reading manga adventures. I hope to be the best ninja I can for Kumo, or I'll probably find myself in a situation where I'll be the only one to protect all my friends against many ninja, and then I'll get killed and my teammates will get killed and Kumo will-"

"SHUT UP!" Karui yelled again, this time bashing Omoi's head. "You're overthinking again!"

"Well, it's your turn," Yugito said, taking the attention of the other two Kumo ninja.

"I'm Chojuro Kirishi," my teammate started. "I like kenjutsu, sword training, cool fruit, and fish. I dislike oily food, haters, and poor jokes. My hobbies include kenjutsu training and swimming. My dream is to be one of the Seven Swordsman." Just then, something came to my head.

"Hold on, why didn't you swim to fire country when you got too tired to water walk, then?" I asked. "We were only about 45 minutes from the coast."

"I didn't feel like it."

"Lazy ass," I muttered under my breath. I should've known Chojuro would try to pull crap like that. I could get him back for that later, though. Now, it was my turn to introduce myself. "I'm Kaiza Terumi. I like sweets, crossword puzzles, the ocean and sea animals. I dislike perverts, rude people and sour food. My hobbies include training, playing with Twilight, and crossword puzzles. My dream is to be an awesome ninja."

"Who's Twilight?" Karui asked.

"His cat," Chojuro answered. Instantly, Yugito perked up in interest. Before we could continue, however, Ganryu-sensei interrupted us by clearing his throat.

"Now that we're done with introductions, let's get on with our mission," he said, clearly not one for chatting around. Never was, I'd suspect.

"Hold on," Bee said, not actually making it rhyme. "How about we get a test of skill before the mission?" He turned to his genin before pointing at us. "A nice spar with allies will take you very far."

"Come again?" I said, not being able to decipher that.

"He wants us to spar to get a feel of our abilities," Yugito explained.

"Good idea," Sensei praised. "Your team can choose who they want to fight."

"I want you," Yugito said nearly instantly, pointing to me. It probably shouldn't have been expected, but still didn't expect that.

"I'll fight Chojuro-san, then," Karui muttered. "We'll go first, Yugito." Nodding, we all stepped back to the sidelines for Karui and Chojuro to have some space, save for Ganryu who was officiating.

"...FIGHT!" he declared after a short pause. Pulling out Hiramekarei, Chojuro went straight into hammer mode. Karui jumped back, watching the former smash the ground she just stood on into pieces.

" _Three-Moons Cloud Beheading_!" she yelled, taking her sword and whipping around for a side strike. Chojuro blocked it before catching her with a kick to the side. Not giving any reprieve, he swung Hiramekarei again, almost disarming her.

"Enough!" Sensei blared, making the two stop in their tracks. "That's enough," he said. The two, still high in adrenaline, merely nodded before swapping out with Yugito and I.

"Ready?" she asked, getting into a stance.

"Yup," I responded, taking out Azura and going into the Umi no Odore stance.

"...Begin!" Sensei shouted, jumping back. Instantly, the Kumo kunoichi and I rushed at each other. I would be lying if I wasn't surprised when cat claws met my sword and sparks flew. Before she could scratch me, I jumped back and made a hand sign.

" _Water Style: Water Trumpet Jutsu_!" a small torrent of water came from my mouth, forcing Yugito to jump up to avoid it. When I finished, a small puddle of water began to gather on the plateau. Rushing her again, I tried another side swipe. She blocked as expected, giving me an opening. Whipping around, I channeled water chakra to make the length of the sword increase, catching her off-guard and forcing her to do a quick retreat.

Even then, she suffered a scratch on her arm, though it wasn't as deep as it would've been had she had slow reflexes. "I'll have to take you serious," she said, before making hand signs.

" _Fire Style: Mouse Hairball_!" Five mice on fire started flying my way. I had a feeling a water wall wouldn't be enough considering it was blue fire and the speed they were going, so I was going to have to show off a little bit more.

" _Earth Style: Mud Wall Jutsu_!" A solid wall rose from the ground, absorbing the hairballs effectively. Before she could find me, I began the _Hidden Mist Jutsu_ , covering the entire field in a blanket of mist.

"Wait! We can't see anything!" I heard the kunoichi Karui yell. Stifling a laugh, I tracked around Yugito, finding her relatively quickly. Pulling out some senbon, I threw them at her. She turned and with her claws knocked them away with expert precision. I prepared to throw some explosive tags before something else happened.

All of a sudden, a large burst of chakra happened, completely blowing away my mist. Looking at the source, it made sense.

Yugito was now covered in a cloak of red chakra, with one tail sticking up behind her. The kunoichi had ears also extend out her head, given she's the Jinchuriki of a cat.

"Go, Yugito!" the other one yowled.

"You may want to give up now," the girl said. Strangely enough, neither Sensei or Bee decided to stop the fight. "Or this may hurt."

" **It seems she's been training with Matatabi for a while,"** Isobu noted.

'No durr, captain obvious,' I thought. 'Well, let's have some fun,' I suggested, a smile growing on my face.

" **I agree. Matatabi still owes me for eating my seafood a couple hundred years back."** I couldn't help but sweatdrop at the turtle's grudge.

"Where would the fun be in giving up?" I asked Yugito rhetorically. "Let's make the most of it," I added, a similar layer of red chakra covering my body. All she did was smile before we went at each other again.

Sword and claws clashed again, though this time Yugito would jump far back to make some distance. " _Fire Style: Flame Dragon Bullet Jutsu_!" she yelled. A rather huge dragon made of fire shot towards me, making my eyes widen with both worry and excitement. Making some hand signs, I started to inhale deeply.

" _Water Style: Super Water Exploding Shock Wave_!" A mini-tsunami came out of my mouth, completely dwarfing the water jutsu and basically turning the plateau into a lake.

" _Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder_!" Quickly thinking, I jumped off the plateau, avoiding being electrocuted.

" _Water Style: Coral Prison Jutsu_!" A layer of electrified coral shot up and trapped Yugito, suspending her about eight feet in the air. Coming down, I slightly panted as Killer Bee stepped in at last.

"That's enough, two and three. I'd love to stay and see, but we have places to be!" he rapped. Nodding, I let the jutsu release itself and helped Yugito of the ground like a gentleman.

"You're tough," she complimented.

"Ditto," I agreed, before offering her a fist bump. Smirking, she gladly accepted the offer.

….What I forgot was that fist bumping linked our mindscapes together. So imagine my surprise when I saw a giant blue cat and a purple octopus-thingy with horns and….was it missing a tooth?"

"Ey, yo, it's a family reunion!" Bee screamed, making all of the present people shake their heads.

" **It's been a while, Matatabi, Gyuki,"** Isobu started, finally woke for once.

" **I see you haven't changed a bit, Isobu,"** Matatabi purred. **"You finally found a good one?"** she asked, staring at me.

" **The runt's good, much better than I thought was possible,"** he complimented. **"Still loud though, and interrupts my sleep."**

"The world doesn't sleep 18 hours a day, does it?" I retorted, crossing my arms in irritation.

" **Anyways…."** he dodged. **"I hope my container's victory over yours settles the score over my seafood, Matatabi."** The hellcat's mouth literally dropped, before a tick mark formed on her head.

" **THAT WAS 400 YEARS AGO YOU DAMN TURTLE!"** she snapped, making everyone burst out laughing at her expense. **"Besides, we would've won if it continued.** _ **My**_ **Jinchuriki and I are already working on Version 2,"** she bragged, waving her two tails around in smug happiness. In response, Isobu simply yawned.

" **That's it? We've already done full transformation,"** he revealed, making both Matatabi and Yugito gobsmacked.

"Aren't you the one who always says to keep your abilities hidden?" I asked the turtle.

" **I never said that applied to me,"** he matter-of-factly stated. Completely irritated, I gave him one of those 'Did you really just say that' looks. Huffing, I turned to the two Kumo jinchuriki. "So...What now?"

"We go get something to eat, before we go make this mission complete!" Bee rapped, throwing his right arm in the sky at the end. Everyone else gained a sweatdrop at the horrible rhyme, before we exited from the collective mindscape.

"So, where's the mission target?" Karui asked after we finished the collective spars.

"It's about 1 hour that-a-way," Bee answered, pointing to the west.

"Well, let's get a move on, then," Ganryu-sensei said. Nodding, the seven of us headed out to do our mission.

XXXXX

By the time we neared our target group, dusk had came and the last rays of sun began to disappear into the horizon.

"Hey Bee-sensei, are we close yet?" asked Karui, ever the impatient one. That girl seriously needs some chill pills.

"We're right up under their nose, fool ya fool. So keep quiet, ya fool," he responded, leading us to sweatdrop at that….whatever that was.

"Let's see if we can get a visual," sensei said. Without a sound, he jumped into the trees before prompting us to follow.

The missing-nin weren't hard to find at all. It was a regular looking shack in a small clearing that extended a little while before being surrounded by forested mountains. I tensed a bit when I saw one standing guard with an Iwa headband with a slash through it. I instantly looked at Ganryu-sensei, who maintained a straight face.

"Kaiza," Chojuro whispered. "You see something?"

"Iwa," I said. Eyes widening, he joined me at surveying Ganryu-sensei, who showed no outward emotion besides his clenched teeth. "So, we ready to atta-" I was interrupted by a raised hand from sensei, who put us all on edge.

Moments later, two figures came into the clearing. One was a man with raven black hair, as well as a pair of red eyes with little swirly things it and a Leaf headband with a slash through it. The other one; however, was much more well-known to us.

Kisame Hoshigaki, one of the strongest ninja ever produced from the Hidden Mist. On his back was Samehada, the famed sword of the Mist that was said to shred people to ribbons. Strangely, both of them wore strange black cloaks with red clouds on it. "Who are you?" the guard asked, taking out a kunai at the two. Without any word, the other ninja killed the guard, before he motioned to Kisame, who grabbed Samehada's handle with a smile on his face.

"Let's have fun," the Kiri nuke-nin said, before the two broke into the place. Not even two minutes of shouts and screams later, complete silence flooded the clearing. "We got everything, Itachi?"

"Yes, all of the treasures have been properly secured. I will send them to Leader-sama now," Itachi said, making a clone and giving it the scroll. The clone then rushed off before this Itachi guy turned around. "We have witnesses, it seems." My breathing stopped cold. He knew we were here the whole time?

"Come on out!" Kisame shouted. With no other choice, all of us revealed ourselves to the two missing-ninja. At the sight of Ganryu-sensei, the blue man cracked a large smirk. "Eh, well if it isn't Ganryu!" He then looked us over. "You got brats, now?"

"Quiet, traitor," he said, pulling out his sword. Bee also got into a fighting stance, as well as the other Kumo genin.

"It would be unwise to attack us," Itachi warned, his red eyes seemingly glowing. "Especially when all your Genin are incapacitated."

" **Kid, look away, NOW!"** Isobu shouted in my mind. Paying attention to his advice, I instead looked over to Kisame, who simply smirked. Not even a few seconds later, all the Kumo genin and Chojuro hit the ground, shocking me to my core. **"He is of the Uchiha clan,"** Isobu explained. **"Their eyes give them many powerful abilities, including genjutsu. With just one look, those eyes can render an opponent helpless."**

"Kids, Itachi?" Kisame asked, feigning distress at the sight of us being brought down like nothing. "I never thought you'd be so cruel to little runts. Then again, one still stands," he said, staring right at me. "What do ya say, kid? Want a reward for standing?" I gulped, absolutely shaking. I was no match for someone like Kisame; he was an S-rank ninja for crying out loud!

"You won't be doing anything with Kaiza," sensei jumped in, narrowing his eyes at the man, who laughed.

"We'll see!" Kisame said, before running forward and slashing at Ganryu-sensei. He blocked the first strike before jumping back for the second. Bee tried to interfere, but was stopped by Itachi, leaving Kisame to have at us.

"Kaiza!" Ganryu-sensei shouted. "Take Chojuro and get out of here!"

"What!?" I shouted. "...I can't!"

"Do what I say!" I wanted to, but I couldn't leave him behind. Conflicting emotions bubbled in me, but I was really mad at myself. How did we get stuck in this situation?

"Maybe the kid's not that special after all," Kisame taunted, the smirk never leaving his face.

"Shut….up," I quietly said, doing my best to control the rage I was feeling at the moment.

"Hm? What was that?" he goaded. At that, I couldn't take it anymore.

"SHUT UP!" I yowled, red chakra bursting out of me. Kisame's expression became one of excitement at seeing three red chakra tails swishing out of me. I could feel my skin get harder, as well as my senses skyrocket as he looked at me.

"Now this is quite the sight," he said, before running towards me with Samehada. Knowing that the sword can steal chakra, I decided to leap back and attack from afar. " _Lava Style: Lava Wave Jutsu_!" A large river of lava shot out at Kisame, who jumped out of range along with the other jonin. Landing in the lava, I looked as the two-nuke nin had varying displays of expression. Kisame had an ear-splitting grin; Itachi had a raised eyebrow, which was a lot from him, it seemed.

"That's hot...How about this?" Kisame said, making hand-signs for a familiar jutsu I had used before. " _Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave Jutsu_!" Narrowing my eyes, I dashed through the water, it having no effect on me. Jumping out on the other side, I drew Azura, ready to do some damage before I heard a voice behind me.

"You're impressive for a brat," Kisame said, before swiping Samehada in front of me. Suddenly, the whole cloak around me was gone. Without even having the time to process what just happened, Kisame's foot kicked me across the clearing, knocking the air clean out of me. Struggling to get up, I looked to see Ganryu-sensei fighting Itachi with Bee, while also trying to distract Kisame.

"Enough," Itachi quietly said. Fortunately, it was enough to make Kisame stop in his tracks. "We must leave before Kumo reinforcements arrive."

"What? It was just getting fun," Kisame complained.

"We don't have the time today. Dealing with two Jinchuriki, including one with perfect control over his tailed beast, is not what we're here to do. Our main objective has already been completed." In response, the other man simply gave a "hmph" before putting Samehada on his back.

"You lucked out today, kid," he told me. "Next time, give me a real thrill, why don't you?" With that, the two disappeared, ending the whole event just like that.

XXXX

A/N: That's the end of that thrill seek! As usual, please fave, follow and review, and I'll see y'all folk later! Also, Merry Christmas and happy new year to EVERYONE!

Bliz, out!


	12. Detour! To the Land of Waves!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: Hey, y'all! After THAT crazy fiasco, welcome back to another chapter of A New World! I hope y'all had a good holiday season, and now it's time for you to kick back a lil' bit more and remember to fave, follow and REVIEW, DERN IT! …...Now, on to the story! (Or I'll _Melt_ You)

 _Last Time on A New World…._

" _Enough," Itachi quietly said. Fortunately, it was enough to make Kisame stop in his tracks. "We must leave before Kumo reinforcements arrive."_

" _What? It was just getting fun," Kisame complained._

" _We don't have the time today. Dealing with two Jinchuriki, including one with perfect control over his tailed beast, is not what we're here to do. Our main objective has already been completed." In response, the other man simply gave a "hmph" before putting Samehada on his back._

" _You lucked out today, kid," he told me. "Next time, give me a real thrill, why don't you?" With that, the two disappeared, ending the whole event just like that._

XXXXX

"...Come on," Ganryu-sensei said after Kisame and his partner, Itachi, left. "We're gonna have one hell of a report coming our way." Nodding silently, I picked up Omoi while Bee got the other two and sensei got Chojuro. We hit the trees, only stopping for when Yugito woke up.

"What...happened?"

"We got hit bad," Bee said. "Bro is gonna be real mad." In response, Yugito started to change faces, showing she was having a conversation with her tailed beast. We resumed our path towards Kumo in silence, giving me time to think (wallow) about where everything went wrong.

'How could I have not been able to do anything? I was just….in the way….' I thought, resisting the urge to just scream in frustration and anger. I hated being so helpless, and Chojuro suffered for it. One of the few precious people I really cared about in Kiri…..Hurt be-

" **Kid."**

'What?' I bitterly thought to Isobu.

" **Crap happens. You can't really be blaming yourself, a genin, for not being able to defeat an S-rank ninja."** Everything he said was the truth, but I refused to admit it in my head.

'No, I could've came up with-'

" **You had nothing short of the full transformation,"** the turtle shut down. **"And that would've put the others in greater peril. Just count your luck everyone's alive."** I huffed in frustration, but I couldn't refute Isobu's point. He was right. The only other option I had was to get over it and get stronger to prevent this situation from happening again.

"Kaiza," Ganryu-sensei called.

"Yeah?" I responded, looking over.

"This is the life of a shinobi. Unpredictable. You never know what may happen, even on the simplest of missions. Learn well; Most men only learn this through death." I gave no response, but simply sped up a bit to make sure we got to Kumo before the moon came all the way out. Fortunately, our increased pace led us back to the village gates before long.

"What's going on?" a different set of gate guards asked seeing half of us incapacitated.

"I got news bro will want to know." That's all Bee had to say, for the two nodded and let us in. The Kumo Jonin then looked at the two of us. "Two, show three the hospital for your friends to sleep." Nodding, she turned to me.

"Come on, I'll take you there." Getting an idea, I made a water clone so that I could take Chojuro with me as well. Ganryu-sensei understood what I was going to do, already taking my teammate off his back to give to the water clone. Once my clone got Chojuro all secured on its back, we went to the hospital. It wasn't too far away, and thankfully the townspeople barely paid us any mind.

"Hello, welcome to the-What happened!?" the secretary shouted in surprise seeing the three unconscious people on our backs.

"Bad mission. Do you have anywhere we can take them?" Yugito answered. The woman did a quick checkover before she grabbed a clipboard from her working station.

"Yes, we can put two of them in room 104, and another in 105. Follow me." Falling back, I went behind the nurse until we got to room 104. It was similar to the hospital rooms in Kiri; a simple pair of beds, a sink, medical machines and all that stuff.

"We should probably just put Omoi and Karui in here. No offense to your friend, but…" I nodded, agreeing with her logic. Putting either one of them with a ninja from a different village they didn't hardly know would be kinda stupid. Walking in, I put Omoi on one bed while Yugito put Karui on the other. Finished with that, my clone handed Chojuro over before it dispersed. I then went across the hall to 105 to lay Chojuro down on the single bed in the room.

Wore out, I fell into the one chair that they had there. "Hey, you can come stay at the guest room in my house if you want," the Kumo kunoichi offered. I honestly wanted to take it, but I couldn't just leave Chojuro here by myself.

"Nah, I'll be fine," I politely rejected. "Thanks for the offer, though." She didn't seem to take it bad, simply shrugging it off.

"Alright, then. See you tomorrow." She then left the room, leaving the two of us alone until a nurse got to check him out. Twisting and tossing in the chair, I simply tried to sleep until I came to the conclusion it wasn't going to work out. Throwing myself on the floor in the corner, I put my hands under my head and eventually fell into a deep sleep.

XXXXX

 _The next morning…_

Yawning, I opened my eyes to see a white wall that I quickly remembered was the hospital. Looking down, I saw three shrimp-like tails curling around me, as well as a pair of sheets on top of them, also covering my feet and shoulders.

"I asked them to get you some sheets since you had to summon those tails to keep you warm," a voice said. Looking up, I saw Chojuro, shirtless but mostly uninjured, sitting up in the hospital bed. "It was adorable seeing you cuddle, though. I'm glad I got pictures for Mizukage-sama."

"Chojuro!" I yowled, jumping up. "Are you alright?" I asked. "What happened?"

"They said we got put into a genjutsu that forced us into a state of comatose. They were able to dispel it and get us back to normal. They did a check for internal damage while you were asleep, which explains why my shirt is off. With all luck, I should check out as soon as they get back."

"Where's Ganryu-sensei?"

"He came a while earlier. He said as soon as I check out, we go back to Kiri. As for where he stayed, he just rented out a hotel."

'Lazy ass…' I thought after Chojuro told me what occurred. Of course sensei had to get his beauty sleep instead of just winging it in a chair. Sighing, I sat in said chair while Chojuro began to stretch as much as he could in a bed.

"So….what happened while I was out?" he asked. "Ganryu-sensei told me that you were the only Genin unaffected by the genjutsu." Silently cursing, I closed my eyes as I recollected the series of events I wanted to forget.

"The other guy kept Bee busy….And I had to fight with Kisame." Before I finished even saying that name, Chojuro's eyes got so wide I thought they were going to burst.

"WHAT!?" he shouted, probably the loudest I've ever heard him in my life. "How…..What did…How'd he fight?"

"He was toying with me," I admitted. "He didn't even try, if that has to be said at all. We've still got a long way to go." Chojuro nodded in agreement with me at that. "So….what now?"

"We wait until they come ba-" Right before Chojuro could finish his sentence, a medic walked in with a clipboard.

"Hello Kiri-san," she greeted. "We have concluded that no other damage was sustained other than the genjutsu inflicted on you. You are officially discharged and can leave." I gave a mental sigh of relief at the information before the medic turned her gaze onto me. "You were on the mission with Bee-sama as well, correct?" I nodded in affirmation. "Are you sure you weren't affected by the genjutsu as well? Although you never officially checked-in as a patient, we can still give you a che-"

"No thanks, ma'am," I rejected, only realizing after the fact that my voice was slightly raised and my hands were shaking. "I'm fine, thank you." The doctor, slightly worried, slowly nodded before clearing her throat.

"Well, if that's what you prefer. Have a good day, you two." With that, she shut the door as Chojuro got up and put his shirt on.

"What was that, Kaiza?" the sharp-toothed boy asked me. "Why were you so unusual with the nurse lady?"

"Well…." I really didn't want to tell this story, but it might be better if Chojuro knew, considering he already heard about it. "You remember those four days I missed school without any word, right?"

"...Yeah….What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well….I'll just start from the beginning…."

XXXXX

 _5 years ago…_

" _You need to be more careful, Kaiza-kun," Kaa-chan told me after I cut myself with a kunai. It was really an accident, I simply klutzed on this one._

" _I understand," I replied. We were about to go in the house to patch this up, when an ANBU appeared from the shadows._

" _Mizukage-sama, the council requests your presence immediately." Cursing quietly under her breath, Kaa-chan twirled her fingers through her auburn-colored hair before turning back to the ANBU._

" _Okay, but you need to take Kaiza-kun to the hospital to get this wound cleaned up while I am away. Afterwards, Kaiza-kun, you go straight to the academy, understood?" Nodding, I watched while Kaa-chan went away to deal with the council people._

" _So, ANBU-sa-Woah!" I yelled as he grabbed me and started to make a mad-dash towards the hospital. Quickly walking in the building, he slowed his pace as he went to a dark room in a research wing of the building. Looking around the dark hallways, he opened the door before he shoved me in the room._

" _So, you got him?" another voice asked. Looking at the source of it, I found a middle-aged medic ninja with brown hair staring at me with a glare._

" _Yeah, hurry fast. The Mizukage won't be occupied for long," the ANBU said, worrying me._

" _What's going on?" I asked, getting increasingly freaked out by the second._

" _You're getting checked-out…Demon," the medic said, taking out a kunai. Before I could do anything to defend myself, the ANBU tied me up with ninja wire, preventing me from moving. I simply struggled as the lady ran the kunai through my side, making me scream loudly. In response, the ANBU punched me in the face, throwing me to the wall a crying mess._

" _Hurry up and finish the job!" the ANBU growled. "We can't play with him for too long or we'll get found out." Nodding, the woman began to walk towards me._

" _Please stop!" I yowled. A footstep followed. "STOP! PLEASE!" Another footstep. I could feel another presence taking over me, but I was too scared to even care about it as the medic came right in front of me, kunai in hand. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" I howled, a giant burst of chakra blasting out of my body._

XXXXX

"What….happened then?" Chojuro asked, absolutely shell-shocked at what I told him.

"I lost it. I came to a few days later, but by the time I lost consciousness, the whole wing of the hospital was destroyed and a lot of people died." Looking down, I quietly blamed myself for the innocent people that got caught in the crossfire. It was after that event I remember asking Isobu to help control his chakra.

"That explains why Shoru-sensei shut down any talk of the hospital in class…." Chojuro realized. Just then, the door behind us opened. In the opening stood Yugito, Bee and Ganryu-sensei.

"It was a sad day in our history," sensei started, which told us that it was more than likely they all heard my retelling of the story. "Twenty Jonin, 7 ANBU, 14 Chunin, 3 Genin, 35 civilians. All perished that day. It was the worst loss we had since the conclusion of the Civil War. Kaiza was in a complete rampage, and all available ninja were called to prevent further damage and evacuate the closest civilian populations. Thankfully, we were able to keep collateral damage to a minimum and the rebuilding process went smoothly." I simply stared at the wall while sensei talked, not wanting to hear a single thing that flew into my ears. I didn't help considering I heard it anyways.

"I never knew…." Chojuro muttered, a lost look on his face. Looking over to the Kumo jinchuriki, I saw an expression on their face that I never thought I'd see.

Understanding. Looking in their eyes, a wordless conversation convinced me that there were others who understood how I felt about everything….like _family_. Trying not to cry, I nodded before letting a small smile show at the two Jinchuriki.

"Well….that time is gone and done. Nothing I can do about it but keep going," I resolved, getting an approving glance from Ganryu-sensei. "So, when do we leave?"

"Right now, our boat leaves in three hours." Giving him a crazy look, I scoffed in disbelief at the bomb he just dropped on us.

"Are you serious!?"

"Yes. I received word that Mizukage-sama has another mission for us, which is why we're leaving so early," he explained. Understanding better now, I made an "oh" face trying not to feel too embarrassed. "Don't worry, you can still say your goodbyes. Meet me at the gate entrance in twenty." With that, he exited the hospital room and walked down the hallway to presumably the front gates, leaving the four of us alone.

"So….it's time for you to go," Yugito restated, a twinge of sadness in her eyes. "It would've been exciting to spend a little more time together before you left."

"I agree," I said, smiling at her. "I would've been happy to whoop your tail again." In response, she gave a small grin and narrowed her eyes slightly.

"I would've been delighted to show you who's boss," she returned, sparks forming between our eyes.

"It's whack you gotta go, three," Bee jumped in. "But it won't be long before you see Bee, fool, ya fool!"

"Gotcha!" I promised, actually understanding what he meant for once. After then, I looked back at Chojuro. "Welp….time to go."

"We'll see you off," Yugito offered. The two of us nodding in agreement, we went with the two Kumo ninja to the gate to start our journey back home.

XXXXX

 _The next morning…_

Getting off the boat after barely waking up, I stretched rather dramatically as we returned to the Land of Water. "Come on, we'll likely have to have to go directly back out," Ganryu-sensei directed. Taking in that information, we came along through the lush terrain and misty forestland until we saw the familiar buildings of Kiri. Instead of stopping, we came directly to the Kage building, walking in to the secretary.

"How may I help you?" the lady asked.

"Team Ganryu reporting back from a mission as well as a meeting with the Mizu-Hey, brat!" he said, shouting at me while I walked to Kaa-chan's office.

"She's not busy…." I replied, knowing what time it was. "It'll be better if she doesn't know we're coming." Chojuro and Ganryu-sensei shared a look with each other before they both shook their heads. Snickering, I quietly walked to the room before opening the door without a knock to exactly what I thought I'd see.

Kaa-chan, with three clones doing paperwork, was busy biting on a piece of burnt bacon and messing with similarly charcoal-colored eggs with her fork. Without any reservations whatsoever, I burst out laughing on the spot. Kaa-chan's head snapped up, quickly throwing the burnt food under her desk so fast I thought her hand would fly off.

"Kaiza!" she yowled in surprise, before trying to compose herself. "You're here earlier than I thought you'd be."

"Yup! Had to see how you've been holding up without me!" I responded. "Judging by that horrible breakfast, I'd say not too well." Chojuro and Ganryu-sensei silently snickered beside me as Kaa-chan gave me a look that promised revenge in some way within the foreseeable future.

"Anyways….As much as I would like to give you all time to rest, I have a mission for Kaiza and Chojuro to join on," she informed, making us scratch our heads for a second.

"Mizukage-sama….W-What about Ganryu-sensei?" Chojuro asked.

"Ganryu won't be joining you on this mission, as it is different than what you normally do." No sooner than when she said that, said Jonin sensei saw himself out the door, presumably to go get food or a nap. Sweatdropping, Chojuro and I both turned back to a smiling Mizukage. "Ao!"

"Hai!" Ao said, appearing next to the two of us.

"Ao will be your leader for this mission. This will be an A-ranked mission with two objectives. The first will be to investigate the actions of Gato the shipping magnate in the Land of Waves. If found guilty of anything, I'm trusting your judgement to kill him and salvage his possessions for Kiri. The second….We have received word from spies that Zabuza Momochi is connected with Gato. Thus, your other task will be convincing Zabuza to return to the Hidden Mist as a ninja with all his crimes against the village pardoned." Both of us widened our eyes at the mission task given to us; that was crazy!

"We leave at the gate in 15 minutes. Make sure you're prepared." With that, Ao disappeared in a shunshin, leaving Chojuro and me with Kaa-chan alone. Preparing to walk out the door, I was about to walk out after Chojuro before Kaa-chan called me.

"Kaiza-kun, I'd like to speak to you," she said. Curious, I gave Chojuro a look before he left, closing the door behind him. "I received word from Ganryu about what happened in the Land of Lightning….How are you?"

"I'm….fine," I answered.

"I had planned on keeping this under wraps for now, but I suppose I have no choice since you've already had a run-in with them," Kaa-chan sighed, making me worried and confounded. "Sources have told us of an underground group of ninja that go around doing various tasks. Not only that, they are all apparently S-rank missing ninja, like Kisame. No one knows what their purpose is, but if you ever run into one of them again, do _anything_ you can to get home, understand?" By the end of her sentence, her hands were shaking in what I guess was anxiety and worry.

"I promise, Kaa-chan." Giving her a small smile, I walked over and embraced her in a quick hug. "I'll be back soon!" I told her before going to get my supplies and making my way over to the village gates.

XXXXX

After the relatively short three hour boat ride, we landed in the Land of Waves. "What now?" I asked.

"Now, we go….Hold on…" Ao paused, putting us on edge. Just a few seconds later, we felt a strong presence of chakra a little ways inward. Putting two fingers on his covered Byakugan eye, he activated it. "Come on, there's a battle occuring!" Taking to the trees, we rushed to the scene of the fight.

Hiding in the trees, I stood by to assess the situation, which shocked me. Looking down, I saw four ninja, all with the symbol of Konohagakure, the village hidden in the Leaves. The Jonin, a man with a mask and silver hair, stood over what I made out to be Zabuza himself.

"Can you...see the future?" I heard Zabuza say.

"Yes," the Konoha nin answered. "And your future….is death," he continued, pulling out a kunai. Before he could finish the deed; however, a set of senbon needles came from nowhere, piercing Zabuza in the neck. To all of our shock, someone with a Kiri Hunter-nin mask appeared.

"You were correct that his future was death," the ninja said in a feminine voice. "I have been searching for Zabuza a long time."

"By whose orders?" Ao interrogated, coming out of our hiding spot. Looking to Chojuro, I shrugged before we went out behind the man. Without answering a single thing, the fake Kiri-nin took Zabuza's body before disappearing in a shunshin.

"Well….This mission has taken an interesting turn of events," the Konoha Jonin said before collapsing to the ground.

XXXXX

A/N: Yes, indeed, things have became very interesting, Konoha ninja who should be EXTREMELY obvious but I won't name yet because of trying to keep some form of anonymity to avoid spoilers about a part of the show everyone who watched it should know…..but whatever.

Anyways…..I hope y'all done enjoyed this chapter. Remember to review, fave and follow, and I'll see y'all later!

Blizzard, out!


	13. Riding the Waves! Part one!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it.

A/N: I ain't got a single thing to say, so enjoy yourself! (Really short, I know)

 _Last time on A New World…_

 _"And your future….is death," he continued, pulling out a kunai. Before he could finish the deed; however, a set of senbon needles came from nowhere, piercing Zabuza in the neck. To all of our shock, someone with a Kiri Hunter-nin mask appeared._

 _"You were correct that his future was death," the ninja said in a feminine voice. "I have been searching for Zabuza a long time."_

 _"By whose orders?" Ao interrogated, coming out of our hiding spot. Looking to Chojuro, I shrugged before we went out behind the man. Without answering a single thing, the fake Kiri-nin took Zabuza's body before disappearing in a shunshin._

 _"Well….This mission has taken an interesting turn of events," the Konoha Jonin said before collapsing to the ground._

"Kakashi-sensei!" the pink-haired girl yelled at seeing the jonin fall unconscious. The man's other two students joined her in crowding around him, along with an old man who seemed to be accompanying them. "What now?" she asked, halfway about to cry herself a river.

"We'll take him to my house," the man said. "That way, my daughter can look after him."

"But first...who are you three?" the one with the black hair asked, bringing everyone's attention onto us.

"We're ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist," Ao answered. "May we come to you to your house?"

"Sure, I don't see any problem with that," the old man agreed. "I'm Tazuna," he introduced.

"Well met," Ao returned before turning back to me and Chojuro. "Kaiza, Chojuro. Help the Konoha ninja pick up the Jonin," he ordered.

"Hai!" we said, going over to the Konoha nin and picking him up.

"Lead the way," Ao said, becoming the unofficial leader of this ragtag of ninja. Tazuna, snapped out of his stupor, began to walk ahead of us to his home.

'Hey Isobu,' I called out. 'Is it me or is Ao being a bit nicer than usual?'

" **How would I know?"** he responded.

'He seems to be fine with Konoha ninja, although he usually would've just kept going and ignored them.'

" **Perhaps he has thought of some merits with combining with the Konoha ninja,"** Isobu reasoned. **"Anyhow, there is quite a coincidence that you were chosen to be on this mission."**

'Why is that?'

" **For starters, the ninja you're carrying on your back is the same one who killed the girl I was sealed in all those years ago."** Gasping, I almost tripped over myself before quickly regaining my balance. Looking up, I saw that everyone had stopped to turn to me.

"Are you alright, kid?" Tazuna asked, looking concerned. The Konoha ninja looked at me with suspicion, with the exception of the blond boy with the orange jumpsuit. To ease any suspicion, I flashed them a quick smile.

"Yeah, just….thinking a little bit, that's all," I admitted. Technically, it wasn't a lie. Unfortunately, Ao thought I had already given away too much possible information.

"Kaiza, watch yourself. It is important you maintain focus at all times," he advised, though the critical look in his eye was much more specific than that. Continuing the walk to the old man's house, I resumed my conversation with Isobu.

'Any other surprises I should prepare for?' I asked, mentally bracing myself for whatever Isobu had to say next.

" **Yes, actually,"** he revealed. **"I can feel Kurama in him. That boy in the orange is the nine-tails Jinchuriki."**

'Well hot damn,' I mentally huffed, rolling my eyes. 'He doesn't look anything like Yugito or Bee, though. He doesn't even look like he has a lot of training.'

" **Likely, he got stunted in his village like the teachers tried to do to you at the Academy,"** Isobu guessed.

'Jeez, thanks for bringing that back in the picture,' I sarcastically replied. In the Academy, whenever I had a problem with a certain skill like chakra control or genjutsu in particular, the instructors would mostly ignore me entirely or tell me things I already knew.

" **It's the truth,"** he defended. **"Without help from the Mizukage and those other people, you would've most likely failed the test since you wouldn't have been able to learn genjutsu otherwise."** Realizing he was right, I let out a small sigh of frustration at the memory of the Academy. **"Try to talk to the kid and see if you two get along,"** Isobu suggested. **"Since you really care, it might do both of you some good to know each other."**

'It's not Ao, neither. You haven't complained one time or said anything about sleeping yet,' I noted. 'Everyone's acting strange today.'

" **Today hasn't been exactly normal, has it?"** Isobu shot back.

'True enough….' I admitted, giving out a small sigh of defeat. Afterwards, we fell into a small silence before we arrived at the man's house. Knocking, it only took a couple seconds before someone opened the door.

It was a middle-aged woman with black hair and striking features, presumably his daughter. She wore a nice pink shirt and a skirt that went slightly below her knees. "Father!" she yowled upon seeing Tazuna. With a look of relief on her face, she threw her arms around the man in a big hug. "Welcome back! I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Thank you, my sweet baby," he returned, before turning to us. "Can this ninja get some treatment? He lost it protecting me?" he asked, pointing back before walking in the house, ignoring ALL the rest of us.

"I'm terribly sorry," she apologized for him. "You all can come in," she offered. Going in first, we followed Tsunami to a spare room with a little mattress on the floor where we laid him down. "He needs to be alone in this room, and I have two more spare rooms for all of you. Sorry if it becomes a little cramped, but it's the best I have," she said as she got more materials for the unconscious ninja.

"It's no problem," Ao eased. "We will share rooms. All you Konoha nin can stay in one room, while we stay in another," he said, taking charge of the situation.

"Hn," the black-haired emo kid said.

"Hey, who are you guys to boss us around, anyway!" the kid in orange burst out, pointing his finger at Ao. The hunter-nin was about to reply, but I decided to beat him to it to save us both some time.

"Hey there," I said, walking up to him and extending my hand. "I'm Kaiza Terumi, and I'm a Genin from Kirigakure." He looked utterly dumbfounded, like he wasn't used to this before, which was probably true. After a moment of silence, he gave me a small smile and pointed enthusiastically to himself.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be Hokage someday!" he shouted, but not too loud.

'Uzumaki?' I asked Isobu. 'He doesn't _look_ like one….'

" **While that may be true,"** Isobu started, **"He certainly has the personality and extreme chakra to be one. Most likely one parent is an Uzumaki instead of both of them."** Nodding, I gave him a smile back.

"Cool. I'll be looking for your name in the books, then."

"Please, Naruto," the pink-haired girl said in a voice that had clear annoyance. "You were dead-last at the Academy and your jutsu is awful compared to Sasuke-kun." The lip service she paid to the other member, Sasuke, made me dislike her from the start. From the looks of it, I could tell she didn't lift a single thing in her life, more or less train like a real ninja is supposed to.

'Then again, people will always judge,' I mentally shrugged, giving a sigh as she turned back to me.

"Sorry about him, I apologize. I'm Sakura Haruno, and the one over there is Sasuke," she mentioned, pointing to where he was, putting his stuff down in the spare room they were going to use.

"My teammate's Chojuro," I told them, making sure that all the Konoha ninja heard.

"Why do you only have one teammate?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Uneven split," I quickly said. Turning away, I closed the door as I entered the room with Ao and Chojuro. When I came in, Ao slapped a small seal on the door. It began to glow for a second before becoming normal again.

"A silencing seal, so no one will be able to hear what we say in here," he explained. "Kaiza, you can't get friendly with these foreign shinobi. We have a mission to complete."

"From the looks of things, I'd say we could be working together," I returned. "Their mission obviously is to protect the bridge builder. Gato is out for his head, and he used Zabuza to get it done. If Zabuza really isn't dead, then sticking to them will mean we _have_ to run into Zabuza again," I explained. After listening to my viewpoint, Ao remained motionless unless he gave a slight nod.

"That is an appropriate train of thought," he concluded. "I will talk to Kakashi-san when he awakes from his nap. Perhaps you two could learn something from him," he said, making us both a little curious.

"How so?" Chojuro vocalized.

"That Jonin is famous for possessing the Sharingan. He's also called the Copycat Ninja because he has gathered a possession of over a thousand jutsu." Both of our eyes went wide. "He's one of the Leaf's best men, and was once a borderline S-rank ninja."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Peace-time makes one relax, and they lose their touch," Ao explained. "He's likely closer to a mid-A rank ninja, if him falling out after battle with Zabuza is anything to indicate. Remain observant for anything you can learn, but don't divulge any secrets." When he said that, he looked pointedly to me. "Kaiza, that means you can't be spacing out and talking out loud to the Three-tails. Also, only use its chakra if in case of an emergency."

"Hai," I nodded, while doing a mental eye roll. "Can we go see if there's anywhere to train?" I asked. He stopped for a second before nodding.

"Make sure to be back by sundown. We can take a break tonight, but tomorrow we have to begin our search for Gato's lair." With that, Chojuro and I left the room and closed the door behind us. Going downstairs, we found Tsunami cleaning up the kitchen and tidying up.

"Tsunami-san?" Chojuro called, getting her attention. "Is there….any clearing here we can use for training?"

"Yes, there's a forest out back," she told us before returning to her dishes. Looking at me, he lead the way to the sliding door that lead to the small clearing. It was really a straight shot, and it was only about a 10 minute walk.

"So...what do you want to do?" I asked him, having no idea of what to practice.

"How about-" Before we could go any further, we looked to see the Konoha genin walking into the clearing, following us. The one called Sasuke pointed at me, narrowing his eyes.

"Fight me," he demanded. The uptight attitude was more than enough for me, but I thought I could knock him down a few pegs.

"Who are you to make demands?" I said critically.

"I am Sasuke Uchiha," he revealed, making my eyes widen. That meant he was like that Itachi man I saw in the Land of Lightning.

"...Okay, let's see what you got," I challenged. Noticing that Chojuro was looking at me like I had 5 heads, I gave him a quick smile. "Can you officiate?" I asked him. Seeing there was no way out of it, he sighed before coming to the middle of the clearing while we went to opposite sides.

"Crush him, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura yowled loud enough to knock my equilibrium off. Someone really needs to introduce her mouth to duct tape.

"Ready? Hajime!" Chojuro said, before jumping back. Sasuke instantly went to the offensive, throwing a couple shuriken before rushing forward for an assault. Taking out Azura, I easily deflected them before sheathing her and blocking Sasuke's punch with my arm. Not missing a beat, I went for a leg sweep. Jumping up, Sasuke found himself falling right into my trap. Putting my palm out, I caught him by surprise with an onslaught of coral. It caught him successfully, trapping him and throwing him on the ground. Seeing him struggle, I simply assumed it was over and released the coral.

"That was qui-" I began before he yowled at me.

"I'm not finished yet!" the Uchiha said, before making hand signs for what I knew was a fireball jutsu. Remembering Kaa-chan's training, I simply looked and waited for what was to come. " _Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!_ " A large ball of fire came bursting straight at me. Despite Chojuro's warning, I stood and took the direct blow.

It stung a little, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the fire jutsu Kaa-chan usually throws at me. Those leave legitimate burn marks. Using some of the water's moisture to kill off the fire, I was not disappointed by the looks of shock presented to me by the four other Genin.

"WHAT!? HE SURVIVED SASUKE-KUN'S FIREBALL WITH A DIRECT HIT!?" the screaming witch of the west said, making us all want to go deaf.

"How _did_ you do that, Kaiza?" Chojuro asked.

"Training with Kaa-chan," I explained. "She taught me fire resistance before our official genin test."

"Cool! Can you teach me? Can you teach me?" Naruto asked with stars in his eyes. Laughing a little, I rolled my eyes at the childishness.

"Sorry, but you'd get burned to a crisp," I said, making him morph into a crying mess in the corner. Next, Sasuke came up to me with the angriest look ever on his face.

"You. Teach me all your secrets," he demanded, not unlike a spoiled brat. Looking at him like he was crazy, my mind quickly had to shut down hundreds of rude replies swirling in my brain for a sensible response to the question to come out my mouth.

"Now why would I do that?" I asked. "We're from different villages. Rival villages at that. What would I look like giving away precious secrets?"

"I'm the last Uchiha," he arrogantly said.

"You want a medal?" I said, bored already with this shtick. "What does your clan have to do with a rival village? In fact, I _should_ kill you to prevent a potential foreign threat, since you so gingerly told me your importance of status," I goaded, slightly appeased at the Uchiha's face getting pale.

"It's my turn to fight you!" Naruto jumped out. Looking over, I raised an eyebrow as the attention focused on the loud blonde.

"Go ahead. You have no chance," the duck-butt haired teen said.

"Yeah, Naruto!" Pinkie piggy-backed. "Stop being so annoying!"

'Speak for yourself/ **Speak for yourself,'** Isobu and I thought at the same time. "Sure, I'll do it," I agreed. Naruto at least was the best of the three to be around. Also, it'd be a good bonding experience. Going back to the corner I went to for the last spar, I watched Naruto and Chojuro assume their respective positions as challenger and officiator.

"Ready? Hajime!" Chojuro began. Instantly, Naruto made a single hand seal.

" _Ninja Art: Shadow Clone Jutsu_!" he shouted, followed by a group of smoke that dissipated to reveal 10 extra clones. "Attack!" he ordered, with the clones following it willingly and with a battle cry. Making a couple of hand signs, I took a deep breath as I prepared to release the jutsu.

" _Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu_!" I said to myself, watching as a fireball larger than Sasuke's decimated the clones and continue towards the original. Worrying that I went too far, I was about to go help Naruto before two windmill shuriken came out the fire. Moving, I dodged one of them before deflecting the other with my sword.

"Aha! Gotcha now!" I heard from behind me. Turning around quick, I saw Naruto coming fast with his fist cocked and ready to punch my lights out. On reflex, I made a hand sign I always had come to use when in this predicament.

" _Earth Style: Mud Wall Jutsu!_ " I yowled, hitting the ground. A wall of earth came between us, and Naruto crashed into it head first, if the smack and the loud yell was anything to go by. Lowering the wall to see a Naruto with an anime bump on his face, it took everything I had not to burst out laughing. "I think we can call this one over…." I said, limiting myself to a little chuckle.

"I was so close!" he whined, already back up like he didn't just smash his face in a wall of dirt. "Let's go again!"

"I don't feel like it anymore," I said. "Why don't you train a bit?" I offered, preventing an oncoming outburst from the short kid.

"Uh….sure….what should I train on?" he asked. Looking back to Chojuro, we shared a look to each other before shrugging. Helping them out couldn't end up THAT bad, and Ao wouldn't know about it anyway.

"Try to improve your chakra control," I offered. Nodding, Naruto gave me a squinted look before he started to scratch his head in frustration.

"Ah! How am I supposed to do that?"

"You don't know tree walking?" I asked incredulously. We learned that in the Academy, for goodness' sake. It was basic basic, like….extremely basic. Unfortunately, the blank looks given by the Konoha genin confirmed my question. "Basically, you focus chakra on your feet and use it to climb up the tree," I explained, providing an example by walking up a nearby tree. "Too much chakra, and you blast off. Too little, and you slip down. The goal is to get a precise amount of chakra focused so that you can comfortably walk on vertical surfaces as if it were solid ground."

"Okay! This'll be a piece of cake!" Naruto shouted, before running up a tree. He got about four steps up before he slipped off and hit the ground head-first. Stifling another laugh, I shook my head before going back to Chojuro.

"So, what should we do?" I asked.

"Maybe...We could find a lake for practice. One shouldn't be too far away." Nodding in agreement, we left the other three on their own as we went further into the forest to find a lake. Thankfully, the walk wasn't long before we found a rather large lake. "Let's fight on land."

"Why can't we fight on water?" I whined. Considering who was in my belly, I already knew why Chojuro wouldn't want to.

"That's suicide," he simply said, taking out Hiramekarei. I responded by taking out Azura. Settling into our stances, we stared at each other for a second before I began to get impatient. Rushing forward, I began with a sidewards slash. Jumping back, Chojuro used a tree as a platform to jump back at me. "Hammer!" he yelled, Hiramekarei taking said shape. Getting out the way, I watched as Chojuro's sword into the ground, causing fissures to spread from the impact point. Taking no time to look gobsmacked at what just happened, I quickly made a slew of hand signs.

" _Water Style: Dragon Bite Jutsu!_ " Out of the water, three water dragons emerged, all of them honed in on Chojuro. Eyes widening, he jumped up, dodging one of the dragons. Two dragons still homed in on him, ready to do some damage. Pushing chakra into his sword, it assumed hammer form again as he swung it in a circle, destroying both of the water dragons at once. Landing on the water, his eyes quickly widened as he figured out what my plan _really_ was. " _Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu_!" I yelled, a clone putting him inside a small dome of water. Looking at Chojuro, I gave a quick smile before releasing the dome.

"Great, now I'm all wet," he complained.

"At least know you don't need another bath," I shot back, earning a stink eye in return. Just then, I noticed a presence behind us that was trying horribly to fail, if the gigantic chakra signature was anything to go by. "Naruto, why are you spying on us?" I asked out loud. Walking back to the shore, I rolled my eyes as said the orange-clad knucklehead revealed himself from his hiding place.

"I wasn't spying, honest!" he denied. "I just wanted to see how you guys fought...Yeah, just that!" he said. He was telling the truth, but it seemed that he didn't want to sell his pride out at the same time.

"Naruto….That's spying," I deadpanned. He made a goofy smile and scratched his head again in embarrassment.

"When ya put it that way…" Not even a couple seconds later, he was right in front of us with stars in his eyes. "YOU TWO WERE AWESOME!" he screamed. "You did the water thingy like that, and he has that giant sword-hammer thingy, and then you trapped him really good! CANYOUTEACHMEPLEASEIREALLYWANNADOTHAT!" he pleaded, honestly making me worried he would hyperventilate or something.

"..." Being completely honest, I had no idea how in the world to react to this situation. "Why don't you ask your sensei for some extra pointers?" I asked. Apparently, I hit a nerve as his face contorted into a scowl.

"Kakashi-sensei doesn't teach us _anything_!" he complained. "He only focuses on _teamwork_ and _Sasuke_!" The blatant favoritism was disgusting, and it clearly only enhanced the Uchiha's superiority complex and ego. I figured it safe to assume he got everything handed to him by the village.

"Why don't you ask someone else to help you?" I almost regretted asking the question seeing Naruto's eyes clouded with raw pain. The look he gave was so familiar to me that I felt the pain he quickly tried to mask.

"Well, most of my village has a problem with me, but that doesn't mean anything! When I become Hokage, they'll have to acknowledge me!" he proclaimed, making a big smile with closed eyes.

"Well, I'd advise to finish the tree walking," I said. "Then, we can work on something else." Nodding rapidly, Naruto quickly left back to the clearing.

XXXXX

 _That night…_

After dinner made by Tsunami, the Konoha ninja went to sleep. However, I found that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't sleep. Naruto's face kept entering my head. Although Yugito and Bee were Jinchuriki as well, they clearly weren't ostracized to the extent Naruto was. In the former shinobi's case, they had garnered respect for being able to hone the abilities of their tailed beasts, Bee especially. Naruto on the other hand….He got the short end of the stick every time. I would imagine that things were probably worse than what I already knew.

At the lake, I simply sat and looked at the sky and its reflection on the body of water. I sighed again as I thought of the Uzumaki's similarities and his obvious mistreatment.

"Up late, aren't we?" a gruff voice said. Turning back, I found Ao walking up to me. "I saw you earlier today," he started. "You seem to be getting very friendly with those Konoha ninja."

"Hardly," I scoffed. "The black-haired kid is an egotistical maniac, and the pink-head is a glorified fangirl who doesn't do anything. They couldn't be more annoying if they tried."

"And the blonde?" Ao interjected, seemingly reading my mind. "I saw you helping him with his chakra and giving advice to him whenever he asked. I told you not to get friendly with these ninja, Kaiza."

"I...I had to help," I said, looking directly at the many trees slightly swaying in the breeze. "He...has nobody else."

"He has a Jonin-sensei. That's more than enough." Shaking my head, I sighed and closed my eyes, remembering what I saw earlier in the day.

"His village hates him," I started. "He clearly hasn't been helped at all, judging by the fact their sensei hasn't even taught them tree-walking yet. It's clear as day that he's been stunted and hated. Now, he walks around proclaiming his dream in hopes that people will finally see him for who he is, not what he is." Opening my eyes, I looked at Ao, locking gazes and letting show.

"Ao, his eyes are just like mine."

XXXXX

A/N: And that's the end of it! Now, beginning the Land of Waves, how will this story turn out? The best part about it is, I have no idea! But seriously, I hope you enjoyed, and please remember to fave, follow and review! I'll see ya later!

Blizzard, out!


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